I am a retired scientist and love good food, good cooking and find the science behind them quite fascinating. Long story short, I was having "stomach" issues a few years ago, and working with a doctor and dietician I did an elimination diet and when i added bread back in bingo all my issues came back. Seems I may have developed some sensitivity to something in bread, gluten, wheat, or whatever. After reading Michael Pollan's "Cooked" I began to really understand why many people are having "issues" with today's bread. Basically today's bread is NOT fermented using sourdough starter but packaged yeast. It is the fermenting process that breaks down the proteins in bread (gluten being one) and makes them digestible. I plan on using the recommendations in this blog to develop a sourdough starter and try bread out once again. I miss good bread. Rather than start blind does anyone have any experience with this concept and either some reliable reading or some helpful suggestions on this? Ideas including but not limited to: grinding your own wheat, where to buy really good whole wheat or rye, how much longer does using this method take for bread to rise and ferment before baking, are baking methods different for these types of breads? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
From the inquiring mind of a hopeful bread maker
- rfd's Blog
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Hi rfd and welcome to TFL. There are far more qualified than I on this site to help you with your specific questions. However, there is recent science to point to stomach distress frequently thought of as having to do with gluten, but which may not at all. The research is still relatively young, but there are indications that the culprit may be a chemical chain that goes by the term FODMAPs (Fermentable Oligo-Di-Monosaccharides and Polyols). If you google it you should come up with some reliable websites that discuss this carbohydrate, the human reaction to it and lists of foods that do/don't have it.
make bread mire friendly to you. SD is one. Sprouted grain is another. Using some grains in the mix that are low gluten if you have a gluten sensitivity. Using ancient grains like einkorn, emmer, spelt can also help. I am a diabetic and we share the same problems with bread only mine cause blood sugar spike but the fix for both of us is the same. I also limit myself to 1 slice of bread per meal.
Most all f my breads are this kind of bread they will help you too. This Friday's bake is half ancient grain, half whole grain, with half the whole grains sprouted - right up your alley.
Good luck with the quest.