Defiant Health Radio with Dr. William Davis
Defiant Health Radio with Dr. William Davis
The Lies Being Spread About Sourdough Bread
Bakers, breadlovers, even purported health information authorities such as the Mayo Clinic all spread the claim that all the problems associated with consumption of foods made of wheat are eliminated or significantly reduced by sourdough fermentation. Is this true?
In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, Let’s take each of those claims made, one by one, and examine the evidence to see if there is any truth behind them.
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Now, I generally don't like to use words like lies as clickbait for you to watch something, but in this case I think you'll see why I'm calling it lies, or at least flagrant misinformation, about this thing called sourdough. Now, how did this happen? I don't quite know how these fictions got started. I suspect it was some kind of sourdough baker or bakery, maybe in San Francisco or someplace, who thought or believed that there was something in sourdough or different about sourdough that made it healthier than non-fermented breads. Sourdough fermentation, so that's a fermented bread, and so some people have claimed that sourdough fermentation disables all the adverse effects of wheat. And if you review my wheat belly books or recall what I argued in the wheat belly books, that there are numerous toxic compounds in wheat, especially modern wheat, for various characteristics, such as an altered form of the gliadin protein that yields opioid peptides that stimulate appetite and initiate the autoimmune process meant for many conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or type 1 diabetes. Wheat germagglutinin, which is a very toxic compound in the human gastrointestinal tract. Phytates that bind minerals like calcium, iron, zinc and magnesium and you pass them out in the toilet and they're therefore unabsorbed. They're unabsorbable the amylopectin, a carbohydrate of wheat that raises blood glucose very high and stimulates the formation of small LDL particles, the real cause for heart disease, not LDL cholesterol. And so the argument is that sourdough fermentation by microbes resident in wheat changes the characteristics of the bread and making it healthy or healthier. Let's take that apart. One of the sources of this information, oddly, is the Mayo Clinic, and I'll share an excerpt from their website. They say that three proven health benefits of sourdough bread so this is from the Mayo Clinic website supports a healthy gut microbiome. Sourdough bread contains more beneficial nutrients than other types of bread Due to the fermentation process. Fermentation creates probiotics or healthy bacteria that can aid in digestion. Another claim they make about sourdough bread is that it's easily digested. Sourdough fermentation decreases the amount of gluten and FODMAP carbohydrates in the bread. This makes digestion easier and has proven beneficial for those with digestive disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome. And then the last claim they make from the Mayo Clinic is supports better blood sugar control. Sourdough bread has a lower glycemic index than white bread, so it doesn't increase blood sugar levels quickly. So those are pretty persuasive, aren't they? Coming from Mayo Clinic with all these purported benefits? Let's take those apart one by one Now, if you want the references, the scientific references that bag up these arguments. See my williamdavismdcom blog, where it's kind of hard to provide references ina podcast right. So I put these in my williamdavismdcom blog along with about 2,500 other blog posts that discuss all the things I talk about in this podcast, my YouTube channel and elsewhere all the things I talk about in this podcast, my YouTube channel and elsewhere.
Speaker 1:So supports a healthy gut microbiome, because sourdough fermentation with microbes resident in wheat or added for fermentation yield probiotic species. Well, there's so much wrong with that, but the easiest argument against that is that to make sourdough bread they typically bake at 450 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit higher than usual bread baking. With that temperature no microbe survives. You know, spore-forming species, like bacillus species, tend to survive high temperatures, but not that high. So 450 degrees Fahrenheit is sufficient to kill all organisms spore-forming microbes, probiotic microbes, fungi everything dies at 4. So there are no microbes. There are no probiotic microbes in sourdough bread. It does not have any influence on providing probiotics to your gastrointestinal tract and similar studies have been conducted where the composition of the gastrointestinal microbiome has been looked at pre and post consumption of sourdough bread and there is no difference. Because there are no microbes, because they're all dead in sourdough bread. So for the Mayo Clinic and others to say that sourdough bread is a source of probiotic microbes is completely and utterly false, as common sense would tell you and has studies have validated.
Speaker 1:The other claim is that sourdough bread is more easily digested because it reduces gluten protein. Well, that's actually not true. So the most important protein within gluten so recall that gluten, this protein unique to wheat and related proteins and other grains, has two parts. It has a globular gliadin protein, the source of most of the problems associated with wheat proteins, and a glutenin protein, that's a long chain or polymeric protein that gives wheat dough its stretchability. Well, when you sourdough, ferment and then bake, you actually release some of the gliadin protein sequences within gluten within that gliadin, and you increase the various fractions of gliadin, alpha-gliadin, omega-gliadin, gamma-gliadin, and it increases the potential to activate immune responses, including autoimmune responses, and it makes it more accessible to an enzyme that lines the gastrointestinal tract called trans-mortaminase 2, making it more likely to generate effects such as activation of celiac disease. There's a lot of latent people who are susceptible to celiac disease who haven't yet experienced it. This is one of the phenomena that could unmask that presence of a genetic predisposition towards celiac disease. So the gliadin, and thereby gluten, is actually increased by the fermentation process to make sourdough bread.
Speaker 1:How about this idea that it reduces glycemic index by reducing carbohydrates? Not true? So there's really no change If you look at the carbohydrate count in sourdough bread versus non-fermented bread. If you look at the various fractions of carbohydrates, but especially amylopectin A and amylose, there is no difference. So this idea that sourdough bread is less likely to trigger blood glucose rises is patently false. And the amylopectin A, because it's still there, provokes formation of the small LDL particle, the real cause for heart disease. So we know with confidence that sugars, but also wheat, via the amylopectin A carbohydrate unique to wheat and other grains, is the trigger for formation of small LDL particles, the real cause, or among the real causes, for coronary disease, heart attack, sudden cardiac death and a need for procedures like stent implantation, bypass surgery Not saturated fat, by the way, not LDL cholesterol, ldl particles, but specifically small LDL particles. So there's plenty of amylopectin A left After sourdough fermentation and after high-temperature baking, sufficient trigger formation of these heart disease-causing particles that in 55, now to date 55 human clinical trials, those particles, those small LDL particles, have been shown to be superior in predicting your risk for heart attack, stent implantation, sudden cardiac death, etc. Predicting your risk for heart attack, stent implantation, sudden cardiac death, etc.
Speaker 1:How about this idea that consuming sourdough bread reduces the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome? Well, there's a recent European study in people with irritable bowel syndrome, ibs, who were given sourdough bread and they actually had worse symptoms. And here's a quote from that study. And they actually had worse symptoms. And here's a quote from that study. There were significantly more feelings of tiredness, joint symptoms and decreased alertness when the participants ate the sourdough bread. So this idea that sourdough bread somehow absolves this bread of all the problems ordinarily associated with wheat once again completely false.
Speaker 1:There is some truth, though. There's one truth, actually, in some of the claims made by the Mayo Clinic and other sources of information regarding sourdough brown. That is a reduction in phytates. So phytates are a compound in wheat and grains that bind minerals. They bind positively charged minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc, making them unavailable for absorption. You just pass them into the toilet. Iron deficiency is especially a problem and, for some odd reason, particularly in females not so much males, mostly females and so these phytates are very bad for nutrition. You're told you need grains, wheat and grains for nutrition. Actually, the you need grains, wheat and grains for nutrition. Actually, the opposite is true. They cause nutrient deficiencies, especially of minerals. Well, the phytates are the one thing actually reduced by sourdough fermentation, not by the actual process of fermentation per se, but by the acidification you may notice. If you ever had some sourdough bread, it's very acidic. That's because it has some acids like lactic acid and some others, and that reduced the ph into the acidic range and that level of acidity reduces the phytate content. So that is true.
Speaker 1:Another issue is often claimed is wheat germagglutinin, that's the lectin of wheat. That's very toxic to the human gastrointestinal tract and animals. When a purified one milligram, one little speck of purified wheat, germ and gluten is given to a laboratory rat, for instance, it denudes or destroys all the villi, the hair-like projections lining the gastrointestinal tract. It denudes them, it removes them, which is very inflammatory, very destructive. Well, humans are subject to that effect too from wheat germagglutinin.
Speaker 1:What effect does sourdough fermentation and high temperature baking have on wheat germagglutinin? None, it's still there. It's as plentiful as it was at the start. It's no different than any other form of bread, fermented or non-fermented, baked or not baked.
Speaker 1:So a lot of the arguments made to say that sourdough bread supports a healthy microbiome because of the presence of probiotic species, or that it's more easily digested and has reduced quantities of gluten, or that it is better for blood sugar control that's all false and all you need to do is take a few minutes to look at the evidence human clinical evidence to show none of that is true.
Speaker 1:The only thing that falls out as true is that there's a reduction in phytates. So don't fall for these lies or at least this misinformation. Who knows where this got started? But you know, the Internet is the vast echo chamber. It takes only one or a handful of people to say something. Let's say a sourdough bakery in San Francisco. It gets repeated, gets repeated, gets repeated, picked up by some writer for the Mayo Clinic who is too lazy to do background work and look at the actual science, not just hear the repeated claims made by other bakers, by people interested in nutrition or people just interested in eating bread, and it becomes like it almost seems like it's true, but it's not true. All we need to do is look at the evidence and find out there is no such advantage for sourdough bread.
