Sourdough Bread and Gut Health

Warm Sourdough Bread fresh out of the oven

One of my favorite things to do is to bake a delicious, crusty loaf of Sourdough Bread. Not only does Sourdough look and taste amazing, but it's also incredibly good for you (or rather, your gut microbiome). I'm excited to tell you about Sourdough Bread and Gut Healh because they really go hand in hand!

If you've been limiting, or completely eliminating bread, because you worry about your glucose levels, or about gluten, or even just worry about the dozens of mystery ingredients listed on a loaf of commercially baked bread...then Sourdough might be a solution for you! Now I'm not a medical professional, but I can state some facts about the health benefits of homemade Sourdough and what fermented foods like this can do for your gut microbiome.

While I really want to take you into a deep journey of knowledge about the origins of Sourdough and the discovery of natural yeasts causing fermentation, I think that will be another post for another day. This one is strictly about the here and now benefits you can enjoy by bringing Sourdough into your world.

Our gut is made up of many things, and some of the biggies are beneficial bacterias. These good guys help create the microbiome in your body and when they are happy and flourishing, you feel really good! Inflammation is reduced, blood sugars stay more normalized, heart and brain health improves and overall immune function is stimulated. (that's just a handful of benefits, there are many more!). There are literally thousands of different types of bacteria found in your body and on your skin, and as long as the good ones are being nourished, the bad ones can't take over and cause disease.

So how does Sourdough fit into the picture? Well, in very simple terms...Sourdough Bread (along with other fermented foods) is classified as a prebiotic. Much like a probiotic, a prebiotic helps to 'feed' the beneficial bacterias in your gut, promoting health. In addition to this prebiotic action, the fermentation time involved in making sourdough helps break down the flour gluten, which makes sourdough much easier to digest. Many people with gluten intollerance or sensitivities are able to add sourdough into their diet! These are just a few reasons why sourdough bread and gut health go hand in hand.

Now to address the blood sugar factor. Sourdough is much lower on the glycemic index than commercially made bread which means it wont raise blood sugar as quickly as a store bought bread would. It's important to note that there are big differences between types of breads and they can't all be treated the same. What makes an artisan loaf like sourdough special is it's long, slow fermentation process. By using minimally processed whole grains, the fiber content is much higher and it is easily digestible by the body. In addition, as I mentioned previously, it actually feeds the microbiome.

Ok so I'm not telling you to go and eat an entire loaf of delicious, crusty warm sourdough every day, but I am letting you know that there are many health benefits associated with this centuries old bread. I have over a hundred videos posted about Sourdough on my TikTok account @botanicallivingwithkim which give lots of information and visual How To's on everything you'd ever want to know about making sourdough from scratch, and I will be adding longer videos to my YouTube soon too! In addition, this blog will be a wealth of information for you to learn more about Sourdough, including recipes and interesting health data too, so please check back frequently.

As always, you can subscribe to my website at www.enchantedbotanicalsaz.com and never miss out on a new blog post, and look for me on my other social media platforms too! Questions are always welcome, and I hope you enjoy the amazing world of Sourdough Bread!