Why is Sourdough Bread Healthy?

Even the dream of freshly baked, crispy, steaming bread whets the appetite, but it is quite difficult to find delicious, healthy and natural bread. The white bread produced by our bakeries today poses many health risks. Nutritionists recommend returning to sourdough bread as it has been for hundreds of years. So, let's look for answers to the questions why we should consume sourdough bread, what are the harms of white bread, and take a brief look at the history of bread, which is indispensable in our kitchen from breakfast to dinner.

What do we eat?

Until a century ago, human beings did not debate whether basic foods such as bread were harmful or not. What happened happened with the emergence of global companies and the huge increase in the world population in the 20th century. So much so that the population, which was 2 billion in 1927, reached 7 billion in 2011, not even a hundred years later. In 2022, the world population was recorded as 7 billion 924 million people. Global companies have also changed the structure of bread to meet increasing demand and make more profits.

The main ingredient of wheat flour used in bread making today is the starch part of the grain. Cereal grain has an outer shell, and this shell contains high amounts of fiber, vitamin B and many minerals beneficial to health. The inner part of the grain consists of another useful part, the germ. This part contains many healthy fatty acids, especially vitamin E.

White bread is addictive

When we eat bread made from white flour, all these beneficial parts have been removed and only the starch and gluten remain in it. Gluten, as a substance with adhesive properties, damages the digestive system, especially the intestines, and can trigger allergic reactions in many people.

Deprived of all its nutritional properties, white flour now becomes a food with low nutritional value. Immediately after eating, it raises blood sugar and creates a short-term feeling of fullness, but it stimulates the pancreas and causes insulin bursts. This can invite insulin resistance and pave the way for obesity and diabetes. You soon feel hungry again.

There are many people around you who say "I cannot eat without bread", and you may be one of them. The most important reason for this is the high amount of sugar in bread. Due to the sugar in bread, it suppresses other senses and becomes addictive over time. Ready-made breads contain various thickening agents and fructose. Unfortunately, these chemicals also cause addiction.

Its history dates back to 14 thousand years ago

The fermentation process that provides the taste of bread. Fermentation is the process in which the sugars in the dough are broken down by yeast cells, resulting in the dough rising. Scientists found 14 thousand-year-old bread remains during archaeological excavations in the Black Desert in Jordan. With this discovery, information was obtained about the first known bread recipe. The bread in this recipe was a flat bread with the taste of today's multigrain bread and in the form of flatbread.

Göbeklitepe, Çayönü, Çatalhöyük and Hacılar are the settlements where the first wheat was grown and milled in Anatolia. The oldest known wheat remains were found in Göbeklitepe, which changed the course of history. In Çatalhöyük, where there are traces of barley and emmer wheat, most of the houses had grinding stones and ovens. In times when earthenware did not exist, flat breads were baked on a stone placed in the middle of the stove, and the fermentation technique was still undiscovered.

The fermentation process is thought to have been discovered 6 thousand years ago. A baker in Egypt forgets the dough he prepared outside. Dough left outside for a while will swell and sour. When the baker baked this dough, a fluffy and delicious bread emerged that we can remember the taste of. As for the scientific explanation of the incident, some microorganisms in the air came together with the substances in the bread dough and the dough fermented. In addition, with the closed and dome-shaped ovens in Egypt, the heat was distributed evenly when baking bread, thus increasing the taste of the bread. As can be seen from the multitude of bread types and names, bread was very important in Ancient Egypt. There are paintings depicting bread production in detail in the tombs in the pyramids. At that time, workers were paid with bread.

Both satisfying and healthy

So what is the trademark of sourdough bread? Since it has a low glycemic index (rate of increasing blood sugar), it prevents the feeling of hunger without increasing blood sugar. It is also more nutritious as it is rich in beneficial bacteria compared to other types of bread. Whole grain breads made with sourdough have very high fiber content. It contains especially vitamins E and B and minerals. Additionally, since they are prepared with sourdough, their gluten content is very low thanks to the "yeast digestion" of the probiotic bacteria in the yeast. Therefore, traditional breads prepared in this way do not cause much harm to our health.

Fair at Gourmet assorted sourdough bread It prepares it with traditional recipes and serves it fresh. Sourdough Mediterranean Bread with olives, walnuts and thyme, Sourdough Walnut Whole Wheat Bread with olive oil and walnuts, Russian Bread (Borodinsky) with molasses, coriander and rye flour, German Premium Sourdough Bread with raisins, blue poppy seeds, sesame and pumpkin seeds, many flavors waiting for you.