If you follow any health pages or heck even friends on Social media I'm sure that you've seen people making sourdough bread! I know it's definitely in my Instagram Algorithm LOL! So what's all the craze?!
Well I have a couple thoughts... Overall people want to create more that's homemade, things made from scratch, things that are less processed and food where they know where the ingredients come from! And I also think that people are realizing how unhealthy processed food is in America and are trying to do something about it.
Well, yup I jumped on the bandwagon and I made some sourdough bread of my own. It was actually an awesome experience. A member at our gym previously owned a local bread company that he sold a few years back and he invited me over to learn how to make some BREAD! First of all his starter is about 11 years old, yes 11 years old!! He has even taken it on vacations with him to not miss feeding it before!! That's a dedicated baker! I learned so much, but a lot of what I gathered from my lesson was how long the process actually took - not only the starter being 11 years old but also the initial 6-8 hours that the bread has to rise, the fact it needs to be deflated and rise a second time which is another 1-2 hour process and then once the loaves are formed waiting another 1-1.5 hours for it to rise to then be cooked! The over all process is actually fairly simple - but there's definitely a lot of WAITING! In our society time is money and bread companies add ingredients and chemicals to the bread to make the process much quicker... which of course makes the bread much more processed and flat out UNHEALTHY.
So these people who are jumping on the bandwagon of making bread are definitely on to something! And definitely are taking a healthier approach to grain intake. Homemade sourdough bread contains Flour, Salt and Water - that's it! 3 ingredients! It is much healthier than store bought bread and also has added benefits... sourdough contains wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria and not baker's yeast (like other breads) and because of this it is richer in nutrients, has a lower glycemic index - so less likely to spike your blood sugar, contains lower amounts of gluten and is easier to digest! Sign me up!
Overall, our bodies are not meant to have a lot of grains. When we consume grains and our bodies start to break them down a phytate ring is formed which blocks the absorption of Zinc and Iron in our small intestine. This can lead to iron deficiency anemia in many people who consume an excessive amount of grains, especially significantly processed grains.
While it can be very hard to completely eliminate grains from our diets, choosing higher quality, less processed and limiting intake is a great start!
So if your social media is being flooded with sourdough bread , you might want to see what all the hype is about too! I am not a baker and my husband, Scott is the primary cook for our family but I made the bread, it wasn't hard and I've decided this is one thing I'm going to do in this upcoming year to be a little bit healthier and know that when someone in my family is making a sandwich or having some avocado toast they are getting a high quality, minimally processed bread that is sooo much better for us!
If you have any questions about the sourdough bread I'm a newbie, but I'd be more than happy to try to help or if you have any other questions about weight loss, gut health, or overall ready to be on a mission to improve your health let me know, I'm here to support you!
~Jen