Break bread and eat it too!
I spent the decades of my twenties and thirties trying to heal from a significant autoimmune struggle. Based on the research I did and the experts I sought out, everything pointed to the health of my gut. The moral of the story became that my intestinal wall had become too permeable (for reasons to be discussed in another blog post), which caused for my body to essentially attack itself.
Autoimmune disease, in a nutshell is said to come about when the body begins to recognize it’s own function, or mal-function as foreign, which causes it to become hyper-reactive … seemingly to everything. Type 1 Diabetes, Psoriasis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, some digestive disorders, Lupus, Rheumatoid arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis and chronic fatigue all have an autoimmune connection.
Recent research also links certain cancers and heart disease to leaky gut and gut inflammation. In fact, it seems that if one is sick, a good place to start is by addressing gut health and healing.
While I was in crisis mode with this autoimmune volcano, all the traditional medical professionals I saw told me that there was no known cause for my situation and the only hope I had, were steroids and chemotherapy drugs to stop the inflammation and rapid cellular turn over and that I was struggling with. I was forced into a massive paradigm shift where I came to the realization that although I wished for a quick fix, healing is ALWAYS an inside job and always takes time…and that I was going to have to make some serious lifestyle changes. At the time, I was in grad school, learning about how the body heals from the inside out and notthe other way around.
Nutrition, movement and mindset were the only answers to my crisis. I became a bit obsessed with food. In my quest for healing, I made up my mind that grain, specifically the grains found in bread were damaging, irritating and disease causing. Flours and breads are vilified and I was drinking the cool aid.
22 years have since gone by and my thinking about bread has completely changed, based on my objective research and experience.
The following is a summary of what I’ve come to know as true (at least for now).
Our obsession with gluten, the wheat protein that gives bread its elasticity, began approximately only 15 years ago. Currently, 25% of American believe that “gluten free” foods are healthier than foods containing wheat and gluten.
Apparently we feel so much better eating gluten free Oreos, Pop tarts, mac and cheese and hot dog buns with a 9 month shelf life that we spend close to $15.5 billion dollars annually on gluten free foods (2).
Celiac disease was identified and named in the first century AD, by a greek physician named Aretaeus of Cappadocia. True Celiacs however, account for less than 1% of the population.
Humans have been growing, grinding, leavening and baking wheat for over 10,000 years and according to a 2013 US Department of Agriculture study, natural gluten content hasn’t increased over time (although mass production bread makers to add vital gluten to our breads).
Wheat Belly’s author, cardiologist William Davis, claims that modern agriculture has changed the nature of gluten by introducing gliadin, making it toxic. Davis’ claims have been criticized by grain scientists and “there’s no scientific consensus on how prevalent gluten sensitivity is, what triggers it, or even it if exists at all”.
It appears the problem might be due to the quality of our grain and our industrialized baking habits.
Glyphosates found in GMO foods are known to cause leaky gut by affecting the tight junctions of the gut wall (4). Starting away from GMO grain is therefore necessary to save the health of our gut.
Sprouting wheat and grain appears to make the grain less allergenic to those with grain protein sensitivites (5) A 2012 study in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture found that wheat sprouts had higher levels of fiber, amino acids, and antioxidants after 48 hours of sprouting when compared to unsprouted wheat. Sprouted grains are overall, said to be easier to digest.
I also order many of my ancient, heirloom freshly whole grains from https://bluebirdgrainfarms.com/. This amazing grain farm in the North Cascades of Washington state is the real Mckoy and a few years ago, Darin bought me a grain mill, which I use multiple times per week for my baked goods, including my bread.
If this seems over the top, take a look at bluebird grain’s fresh flours and One Degree Sprouted Spelt flour which can be found at Fred Meyer Mass produced breads are problematic and may exacerbate our health issues because they’re made very quickly (no time for fermentation), they use mass produced and highly processed flours and they often add oils and sugars to extend shelf life.
My favorite Whole grain sourdough bread recipe is one that we eat almost every morning AND it’s so good it’s practically life changing. To paraphrase something I recently read…”everything else tastes like cake!”.
The recipe I use (out of the 20 or so that I’ve tried) is embedded in this must read article in Mother Jones.
I also have included a go-to recipe which I’m currently using over and over again.
True sourdough bread is considered gluten free because the fermentation process creates a predigested state for the grain and the gluten. I have experimented for years with this and this is the only 100% whole wheat sourdough recipe that doesn’t taste like a nutri-biscuit, as I’ve been reminded many times by friends and family. I do use the sprouted spelt for this bread, despite the fact that the recipe calls for whole wheat…it works either way.
In the recipe, bread scientist/baker Jonathon McDowell gives the recipe for a homemade sourdough starter…I ordered mine online from a hippie on the East coast. I got it in the mail in a small jar and I’ve managed to keep it alive for over a year now and it’s amazing but it didn’t come with instructions and some find it…weird, to put it nicely.
Bread has brought families and communities together for thousands of years. If we don’t take shortcuts and cheat the system, I think we can absolutely have our bread and eat it too!
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5866307/
3. https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2018/04/how_many_people_really_need_to.html
5. https://extension.psu.edu/sprouting-the-truth-about-sprouted-grains