Are breads made with sourdough significantly healthier than breads made with commercial yeast?
There are many claims out there that sourdough is healthier due to 1) increased digestibility from the yeast cultures, 2) the increased lactic acid, and 3) because there is apparently less gluten in a sourdough bread.
I know a lot of people have trouble digesting breads from the supermarket, but I imagine this is due to the poor quality of the flours used and the numerous preservatives and additives. So taking into consideration that you are baking bread with nothing more than yeast, quality flour, salt, and water- is bread made with levain truly healthier- or are these claims mostly speculative/anecdotal?
Also, there are also poor quality instant yeasts on the market, so also take into consideration that you are using a good quality instant yeast like Le Saffre.
Regarding #1- Aren't there yeast cultures in commercial yeasts as well, and why would they be less healthy than the ones in a sourdough culture, especially if you are starting with a small amount of commercial yeast, and allowing for a long fermentation which would help break down the less digestible properties of flour?
Regarding #2- I've read claims that the increased lactic acid in sourdough lessens the spike in your blood sugar from eating bread. However, eating carbohydrates with fat dramatically decreases any spike in blood sugar- and I think most people eat their bread with butter, olive oil, or as a part of meal that includes protein and fat anyway. So, unless you are eating a ton of bread on it's own, I don't imagine the lactic acid makes a huge difference in maintaining your blood sugar.
Regarding #3- I don't see why this should matter, since bread is a glutinous product either way.
One thing I do notice is that instant yeast has the additive "sorbiton monostearate"- I don't really know anything about this additive or whether it's in significant amounts to worry about.
I'm interested to hear your thought on this, and the reasons you prefer to use sourdough starter other than health benefits. I know bread baked with levain is supposed to have more flavor, but I only have a minimum amount of baking experience so I can't claim this from personal experience yet. I do find the process of maintaining my starter fun, interesting, and rewarding, however. But there is no question that maintaining a starter is a bit more work and commitment than just taking a spoonful out of a jar of instant yeast.
Well I started my sourdough journey mainly because I want to make healthier snacks for my grandparents. It is true that most people eat their bread with butter or other macros, but my grandparents are very stubborn eater, only eats bread that are plain. No jelly, no butter, no toppings, nothing. They're on the boarder line of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and they have to snack between meals, because their appetite hasn't been very good to eat a whole meal. So after I read that sourdough only have a GI of around 54 something while the commercial whole wheat breads are 65+, I went to the cupboard and started my first starter.
And even though the rest of my family usually eats bread with some toppings, they find sourdough breads to be more flavorful than yeasted breads I made in the past. With the right amount of salt and fermentation time, they would enjoy the slices alone, which, from a nutritional aspect, reduce the calories from the fat and increase satiety, hence makes sourdough a healthier choice.
Thank you for your thoughts on this. I need to make a few loaves with commercial yeast and compare them to my sourdough loaves. I don't doubt that sourdough makes a more flavorful loaf, but I need to taste it for myself to keep myself motivated to maintain my starter I think.
I disagree that reducing fat makes a meal healthier, unless it's reducing trans-fats. I think older studies that villainized fat (including saturated fats) have largely been debunked. I personally would find 1 slice of bread with butter or avocado more satiating than 2 slices of bread without any accompaniment. Not that there is anything wrong with eating bread alone simply because it tastes good that way. Good bread needs no adornment for sure.
That's a good idea to compare yeasted bread with sourdough bread side by side. Try keeping all other ingredient ratio the same, and remember to count the flour and water content in the starter into your recipe. Good luck on ur little experiment!
And the reason I brought up the calorie talk is because me and the rest of my family are all above or at the BMI of 25 (we do not have big muscles so BMI does correlate well with our body image). We are trying to cut some weight so less fat is good since fat is the most calorie-dense macronutrient. And I have read a study that says when carbohydrates are consumed with fats, people tend to eat more calories than when they are only provided with carbs or fats alone. This is when unlimited amounts of food is available and researchers measure the calories until people voluntarily stops eating (usually when they feel satiated). So I assume if we are eating carbs alone, it will give us more satiety, but I haven't been counting the calories so maybe I'm wrong.
And to answer you question (which I happened to remember when I was researching about raising my own starter), the little organisms that produce lactic acids and make the dough tangy are a group of bacterias called Lactobacillus. They usually eats sugars (in the case of a starter, starch is a form of sugar) and produce lactic acids. Under certain situations (e.g. when the starter is not fed for a long time so the pH is too low), they produce alcohol.
Thank you for that interesting information! I actually added some freshly-fed starter to my buckwheat pancakes this morning, and it was delicious. I only make one small loaf a week currently, so this is a tasty way to use up starter. I usually use entirely buckwheat flour, but reducing that and adding my starter added really delicious background flavor. I guess this another reason to keep up with my starter
Oh the sourdough pancakes! They are so good! I have also used my excess sourdough starter for cookies, brownies, and waffles. And recently I'm looking into making sourdough bagels. Those little yeasties are so versatile!
If you bake your own cookies you have to try sourdough cookies. The best peanut butter cookies I made and the whole batch is gone in like 2hrs in my apartment. Simply delicious. Strongly recommended.
I think you are correct in noticing that really good flavor can come from commercial yeast. Its the flour and the process that counts. Longer ferments, will undoubtedly give you more or more complex flavor. However, sourdough adds to some of that complexity because of different metabolic pathways of the fermentation process among yeast AND bacteria.
For me, the two main reasons why I use sourdough starter and make my own bread are:
1. I like to keep control of the process and know what's in my food. And sourdough bread simply tastes more complex and interesting than yeasted bread. It also compliments other foods better and often becomes the main focus instead of the side kick.
2. I'm super fascinated about microorganisms and creating a living starter almost feels like magic, as if I was creating life out of nothing!
And yes, sourdough bread (and fermented food in general) is so much healthier. You are right, it contains lactic and acetic acids which are great for your guts. But I believe the main reason why sourdough bread is easier digestible than commercially baked bread are FODMAPS (fermentable oligo-, di- and monosaccharides and polyols) - or actually lack thereof. Those are responsible for the bloated feeling you often get after eating yeasted breads and are especially bad for people with irritable bowel syndrome.
I don't know the exact science behind that but in a study they tested the amount of FODMAPS in a dough after certain fermenting/proofing times. After 1 hour the amount was the highest, after 2 it was still plenty, but after 5 it was almost completely gone. Basically the yeast (commercial or wild) is pre-digesting those sugars for you.
Commercially baked breads are often just proofed for 1-2 hours and therefore have a lot of those sugars. Sourdough can take up to 2-3 days, so the whole loaf is basically pre-digested for you, which makes it easier on your guts, lowers the sugar content (or rather carbohydrates) and makes it in general a much better product.
(please don't quote me on this, this is what I remember from a 15 min. research many weeks ago
So if you wanna use instant yeast, make sure you use very little and give the bread many hours of bulk-fermentation and proofing time. Then it should be at least more digestible and also taste better. But imo nothing beats sourdough bread. You can also use your starter to give some nice tang to other baked goods such as pancakes, waffles, banana bread etc.
Interesting, thanks! I hadn't heard of FODMAPS, and I do wonder if commercial yeast would break them down in the same way over a long fermentation or not. Most no-knead recipes call for only 1/4 tsp of yeast and 18 hours of fermentation. It would be interesting to see more studies on this. I also wonder what it is about sourdough that produces lactic acid that's lacking in commercial yeast. Is it something about the sourdough, or simply the amount of fermentation again?
I think it doesn't matter that much if you use commercial yeast or starter, the fermentation time is more important to break the sugars down. But starter is simply better because of beneficial bacteria like LAB (lactic acid bacteria) and AAB (acetic acid bacteria) that also settle in your starter along with the wild yeast and are responsible for the production of lactic and acetic acids (commercial yeast doesn't do that). Those three together break down the sugars and produce gas.
They also have different temperature sweet spots, LAB is most active around 25°C I believe and AAB at 30°C. So you can control with temperature which acids you want more. . The longer you let it ferment, the tangier it gets (hence the name sourdough).
Thank you for this information! I wonder if these bacteria also improve your digestion, or if they all die during the baking process. I absolutely love sourness in my bread. I'm still working on increasing that flavor with long retards.
I guess they die in the process. But you still get the acids, nutrients and "pre-digested" properties of the bread and your guts will love that!
If you want to dig deeper into this and want to eat live cultures to improve your gut flora, you should look into lacto-fermentation (sauerkraut, kimchi etc.), it's incredibly healthy! But then make it yourself because store-bought products are often pasteurized.
This might explain the terrible indigestion and stuffed feeling I get from soda breads yet never get from sourdough. Breads made from commercial yeast still make me feel a wee bit uncomfortable, but certainly not as bad as soda breads. I never have these problems with sourdough.
Amazing! Mystery solved?
Healthy...healthier...good....bad...all words that , IMO, don't mean much when used in relation to food.They speak of a vague,general attribute to a common item or experience-a judgement, an opinion. We all eat food but it has different effects and provides different experiences for each individual. What is "healthy" for one may be very unhealthy for another.
Rather than trying to give a food a general label like "healthy", ask if it has a specific attribute such as "Does making bread using a sourdough levain decrease the GI?". OR... "Does sourdough bread have less gluten? Different gluten? Gluten that is tolerated better by people with gluten intolerance?"
If I am a diabetic, bread is "healthy or good for me" as a calorie and for enjoyment-but in controlled quantities, calculated to fit into my needs. If I'm celiac, bread is "not healthy or good for me" in ANY amount.
There are plenty of discussions here on TFL and people do get quite passionate- probably because they are speaking of a personal experience and feel attacked when other people have a differing opinion/experience or ,worse, criticize them for their opinion. I am always interested in links for studies but there seems to be a dearth of studies on this topic.
Excellent, on-point post.
Hello! I completely agree with you taking issue with my use of the word healthy. It also bothers me when people categorize foods into "good" or "bad," instead of focusing on the enjoyment they get from them or the positive attributes of the food, or without acknowledging that certain foods may be good or bad depending on an individual's reaction to them, like you say. There is a lot of white and black in how people approach health sometimes, like if you asked a Paleo Dieter they would saw all grains are horribly unhealthy and meat is good, but if you asked a vegan they would say whole grains are very healthy and meat is very unhealthy. It's unnecessary and depressing to view eating this rigidly. I guess I should've asked if there are truly any benefits of using sourdough over yeast, but again, I'm probably over-analyzing a simple thing.
I am in the "I think it doesn't matter" camp.
But I talk about home made breads. Not sure about commercial breads you get from the supermarket with additives etc. I don't think those are in the same league.
I doubt sourdough is healthier then homemade yeasty bread, but for me it taste so much better.
Speaking only for myself, I'd love to see some real science on it, but otherwise, I'm a little suspicious of any popular internet anecdotal 'science'. But I also don't really need any more reasons to make it. I personally don't really like a bread made with a lot of commercial yeast. It can give me a stomach ache, and it goes stale so fast, and the flavor is pretty one-dimensional. Before I made a starter, I occasionally made a no-knead overnight dough using a tiny amount of yeast, which gave me more flavor and less belly ache. But it still didn't really keep well.
With a starter, it tastes great, it's good for sandwiches for 2-3 days post-bake, and (if there's any left), we all love it for toast on days 4-5. So it encourages moderation because there's no rush to eat it all, and it's hearty and filling, and I know what's in it. Plus, I really enjoy every part of it, except waiting for the loaf to cool enough to cut. That seems like enough health benefit for me.
Thank you for your thoughts. I didn't know sourdough kept longer. That's certainly a good reason for me because I'm only baking for myself.
The difficulty with this comparison, as you’ve already noted, is that there are a lot of factors involved beyond the starter vs. commercial yeast part. My spouse and I, for example, are pretty amazed that the sourdough I’m make doesn’t make us feel full or slow like most commercial breads. But is that due only to the starter, or to the lack of preservatives, chemicals, etc? And how about the fact that there’s whole grain, locally milled wheat and rye in my sourdough? That’s probably also a factor.
Each ingredient adds something—that’s usually something good in the homemade bread and something not too good in the commercial bread.
And even if it’s a home baker using commercial yeast (rather than a comparison with store bought bread) the comparison is still problematic. I’m using the locally milled whole grain as well as bread flour, but there are bakers here who use only what they mill in their own kitchens—so organic, local, whole grains all the way. And, to go farther, I have a friend who only makes his sourdough from sprouted grains. That’s grains he’s bought whole from local, organic farmers, sprouted by him, and milled himself.
I think most of us would agree that his breads are really good for most people’s digestive system, but that “goodness” isn’t just because he uses a starter instead of commercial yeast. :-D
That said, you should listen to the podcast “Proof” put out by America’s Test Kitchen, the episode: “Welcome to the Microbiome.” It discusses probiotics primarily, but also the current popularity of fermented foods and foods made with fermentation (like sourdough) and the health benefits of such.
Thank you! I am going to listen to that today :-)