Sourdough Fermentation and Blood Sugar

(Heath Casey) #1

I was watching Cooked (Netflix Documentary) Ep 3: Air and it spurred me on to dig into more on how how bread was made +100 years ago and spiked a curiosity I have had about civilizations use of grains in history.

I have long wondered from both a religious and scientific standpoint how bread can be so bad for our metabolism if civilizations have been using it for so long, without deranged metabolisms and heart disease at the levels we do today. I know that, historically speaking, they probably didn’t ingest the quantity of bread that the modern diet does, but is that the only explanation?

I was intrigued when Cooked talked about how all bread prior to our industrial approach to food was basically long-fermentation sourdough and in many parts of the world it still is. I began to dig around the web to see if any studies have been done on blood sugar or insulin responses on long-fermentation sourdough versus modern breads.

I found two studies online:

I cannot find the actual detail of the first study and the second one is available for purchase. Does anyone know anything about these studies or seen the detail? Before purchasing, I thought I would see if anyone on the forum had already researched this topic or new of any other studies that had been done.

Your help would be much appreciated. It would satisfy a curiosity I have had for a while. I started Keto on October 1, 2017. I am down 25lbs and feeling great. I have not had bread at all, and not really looking to add it back, just curious about this topic.

(Todd Allen) #2

The second paper is accessible through http://sci-hub.bz/

(VLC.MD) #3

Less bread, more weight loss.
:keto:

(Brian) #4

It’s an interesting topic. I was once a baker of a true whole wheat loaf that was pretty much second to none, but like Casey, I quit eating bread pretty much altogether.

I think since August, I’ve had little bits and pieces, probably totaling less than one actual sandwich slice of bread.

There are some keto bread type recipes I want to try out soon, though. At least I won’t have to feel guilty about those. :slight_smile:

(Todd Allen) #5

From the paper:

bread

Note, WM stands for wholemeal. This indicates wholemeal sourdough bread is significantly better than white wheat bread for post prandial glucose and insulin response. Another factor they didn’t look at but might be of significance is the additives in commercial breads such as HFCS and other sugars, starches, dough conditioners, etc.

My guess is that traditional sourdough bread eaten in moderation in a diet of whole foods without other significant sources of refined carbohydrate is probably healthy as are foods rich in carbohydrates such as fruits and starchy vegetables. But in our current world it is hard to achieve a clean diet and many of us are still affected by our past indulgence in refined carbohydrates and we may find it beneficial to restrict or avoid even the healthiest of bread. I’ve come to see bread as a food rich in calories with modest nutritional value. Although it was a primary staple I no longer miss it, not even interested in the low carb alternatives.

(Brian) #6

Wow, Todd, that chart paints a very variable picture.

Looking at numbers like, “92.3 ± 40.9”, um… well, that could be 133.2 or it could be 51.4.

Yikes! It’s hard to know what to think about a chart like this, other than it is so variable that anything short of your own personal data is not really of much value.

Interesting, nonetheless. Thanks for posting the chart.

(Todd Allen) #7

Yes, individual response in glucose and insulin varied by nearly 50% while the improvement of sourdough wholemeal was less than 20%. Which to me suggests that if you aren’t metabolically healthy going sourdough is unlikely to fix your problem. Also worth pointing out that the test subjects all had metabolic syndrome to some degree:

The criteria for the entry to the study were impaired fasting
glycemia (IFG) (fasting plasma glucose concentration 5.6–
6.9 mmol/l), BMI 26–39 kg/m2, and at least two other features of
the metabolic syndrome according to the Adult Treatment Panel III
criteria.