Why I love sourdough

I love sourdough!!! I love that it is easy and it is a healthy way to eat baked products.  I have noticed that not all of my family does well with store bought bread products and there are lots of ingredients I don't like in the store bought breads.  I have found that we do not digest the sprouted bread all that well either.  Thankfully we all seem to do well with sourdough.  Here is a great video on the how and why and science behind sourdough.  

There are many health benefits to sourdough bread.  Before commercial yeast was available at the store people used to make bread through natural leavening or sourdough.  Sourdough is a fermented food and there are a lot of health benefits to consuming fermented foods like the probiotics and also to help balance gut flora.  Fermented foods have lots of lactic acid which help preserve the food and more importantly it helps our bodies absorb the most amount of nutrients.

Sourdough breads and products can help improve nutrition and digestion by:
-pre-digesting the starches which make the bread easier to digest
-they can help improve glucose tolerance by lowering insulin response which is helpful for diabetics
-breaking down gluten and some gluten intolerant people are able to eat sourdough bread!!
-the vitamin B1 is protected from being damaged due to the heat of baking
-helps to neutralize the  phytates which help our bodies to be able to absorb the minerals like zinc, copper, iron, magnesium and phosphorus! (this list of benefits I found off this website click here for more info)

Phytates or phytic acid are anti-nutrients and they bind to metals and also inhibits many of the minerals like zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium.  Phytates are present in most legumes and grains and they inhibit our bodies from being able to absorb the nutrients that are present in those foods and they will sometimes bind to the minerals and metals in our bodies and flush them out of our bodies. (I found info on phytic acid here)  It is said that the Israelites ate leavened bread once a year at passover and helped get the toxic metals out of their systems.  

I have a few favorite sourdough recipes to share with you and I hope to continually be adding more to this list!

-Sourdough English Muffins

-Sourdough pancakes