• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
The Healthy Home Economist

The Healthy Home Economist

embrace your right to a lifetime of health

Get Plus
  • Home
  • About
  • My Books
  • Shopping List
  • Archives
  • Log in
  • Get Plus
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Get Plus
  • Log in
  • Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Archives
  • My Books
  • Shopping List
  • Recipes
  • Healthy Living
  • Natural Remedies
  • Green Living
  • Videos
  • Natural Remedies
  • Health
  • Green Living
  • Recipes
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Whole Grains and Cereals / Sourdough Bread Myths

Sourdough Bread Myths

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

sourdough-bread-loaves

Yeast was first introduced as a substitute for homemade sourdough starter in breadmaking at the court of Louis XIV of France in March 1668. Scientists at the time already knew that this substitution would harm public health by reducing the digestibility and nutritional value of bread. Their counsel resulted in an initial and vehement rejection of the idea.

Ultimately, the idea slowly took hold anyway due to the increased speed and convenience of using yeast for baking. This combination of factors proved too strong to resist particularly as the hustle and bustle of the Industrial Revolution arrived in full force.

Today, almost all bread, no matter if made with wheat or homemade gluten-free flour, is baked using yeast. Consumption of these modern quick rise baked goods instead of traditional sourdough bread has indeed resulted in an overall decline in health as warned centuries ago. The result is a widespread backlash against bread with carb consumption implicated in numerous health woes. The book Life Without Bread summarizes the case.

On the other hand, the realization that modern carbs aren’t a healthy part of the diet has also resulted in a resurgence in popularity of authentic sourdough bread. Naturally leavened bread made without yeast actually facilitates the body’s absorption of cereal grain nutrients. This compares with yeasted bread which diminish or destroy the grain’s nutritional value.

Properly made sourdough bread also eliminates anti-nutrients from the cereal grains. The most notable of these is phytic acid which blocks mineral absorption and can trigger gastric distress. Preliminary research also indicates that those with Celiac disease may be able to eat sourdough bread.

For those who wish to eat bread without the downside, sourdough bread is the answer.

Misconceptions about Sourdough Bread

Unfortunately, the excitement over sourdough bread has spawned some myths about this traditional food that abound as well.

While there are numerous benefits to consuming sourdough bread, watch out because the following is not among them!

Sourdough Benefits Gut Health Because it Contains Probiotics?

It is true that a properly made sourdough starter contains friendly Lactobacilli. This is a beneficial strain of bacteria found on the surface of all living things. These microbes are even crawling all over you right now keeping your skin healthy and in proper pH balance.

These lactic acid-producing probiotics are responsible for the breakdown of anti-nutrients like phytic acid. They also encourage the slow rise of the bread without the addition of any yeast.

The absence of baker’s yeast permits baking the bread at a lower temperature as well. This protects the integrity of the cereal grain proteins along with their nutritional value.

These benefits are made possible by the fermentation of the bread dough prior to baking using a probiotic-rich sourdough starter. Here’s where the confusion starts.

Just because sourdough bread dough is fermented, does this make sourdough bread a probiotic food?

Temperature at Which Probiotics are Destroyed

It is true that sourdough bread dough is indeed fermented and rich in probiotics. However, the resulting sourdough bread is completely devoid of beneficial bacteria.

How can this be?

The reason there are no probiotics in sourdough bread is that the heat of the baking process destroys them similar to how pasteurization destroys probiotics in raw milk. Remember that probiotics are living things and as such will die under similar conditions as food enzymes. Dr. Mary Enig has this to say on the subject:

All enzymes are deactivated at a wet-heat temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit, and a dry-heat temperature of about 150 degrees.

It is one of those happy designs of nature that foods and liquids at 117 degrees can be touched without pain, but liquids over 118 degrees will burn. Thus we have a built-in mechanism for determining whether or not the food we are eating still contains its enzyme content.

Sourdough bread is typically baked at a temperature of at least 300 °F/ 149 °C and sometimes as high as 450 °F/ 232 °C. There is no enzymatic or probiotic activity remaining when you actually eat it.

The notion that sourdough bread benefits gut health because it contains probiotics is completely false.

Does this mean you shouldn’t eat sourdough bread? Of course not.

There are many benefits to eating this nutritious traditional food as mentioned above.

Probiotics just aren’t one of them.

So, slather on some probiotic and enzyme-rich raw butter and/or some local raw honey and enjoy!

FacebookPinEmailPrint
Category: Whole Grains and Cereals
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: Amazon #1 bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

You May Also Like

GMO wheat and hybrid varieties in bowls on wooden table

Hybrid vs GMO Wheat

The 5 Reasons Why Grains Are The Hardest Food to Digest

No, Your Oatmeal is Not Gluten Free (no matter what the label says)

Why Your Oatmeal is Not Really Gluten Free

granola

Why No Granola is Good Granola

How to Store Sourdough Starter (short and long term)

How to Store Sourdough Starter (short and long term)

wheat germ

3 Reasons to Say No to Wheat Germ

Going to the Doctor a Little Too Often?

Get a free chapter of my book Traditional Remedies for Modern Families + my newsletter and learn how to put Nature’s best remedies to work for you today!

We send no more than one email per week. You will never be spammed or your email sold, ever.
Loading

Reader Interactions

Comments (48)

  1. John

    Aug 13, 2019 at 5:59 pm

    Well your conclusion is reasonable but it’s not actually true. Microbes in bread including the yeast and lactobacillus will survive the baking process, just not in large numbers. You would need to incinerate the whole loaf to actually destroy them all. Likewise things like pasteurization are all about REDUCING the count of microbes to acceptable levels, not to entirely eliminate them. You would need an autoclave or boil for a long time if you really want to produce a sterile product. Remember that the interior of the loaf of bread never reaches the temperature on the outside of the loaf. There are always microbe survivors.

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope MGA

      Aug 14, 2019 at 7:28 am

      This is patently untrue. ALL bacteria is destroyed by the baking process. Pasteurization at 165F which is FAR below baking temp certainly destroys everything, as an easy example. The indication that pasteurization has been successful is that ALL bacteria are gone … both good and bad.

  2. DJ

    Jan 16, 2019 at 10:20 am

    Why sourdough bread? This prevents the effects of the phytic acid and makes the bread easier for us to digest. These phytic acid molecules bind with other minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc, which make these important nutrients unavailable to us. Long slow fermentation of wheat can reduce phytates by up to 90%.
    The cultures don’t survive the baking process (bummer!), but lactic acid is created (bonus!), and that does the body a whole lot of good.

    Reply
  3. Naseebah

    Dec 2, 2018 at 11:33 am

    Hi. Do you happen to know how much starch is left in a typical 100g loaf of genuine sourdough ? such as one made with spelt flour or wheat flour ? I’ve read on the internet that fermentation reduces carbohydrate content because the bacteria eat up the starch and sugar. The longer it is fermented the less starch remains ?

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope MGA

      Dec 2, 2018 at 4:42 pm

      There is still a ton of starch in sourdough bread even after proper fermentation. All fermentation does is breakdown some of the complex, more difficult to digest carbohydrates and proteins into more simple form.

  4. Teresa

    Nov 26, 2018 at 8:57 am

    can I eat a tablespoon or two of raw starter for beneficial probiotics?

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope MGA

      Nov 26, 2018 at 9:43 am

      That is not recommended as the flour is not yet cooked and would be very indigestible if not damaging to the gut. Grains should never be consumed raw even if fermented.
      Best to eat a fermented food such as these (dozens of recipes). https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/recipes/appetizers/sides/fermented-sides/

  5. Dawn Myler

    Apr 16, 2018 at 12:06 pm

    I don’t want to eat bread if their isn’t a reason such as probiotic. Is there anyway to use my starter that would be beneficial to my skin or gut

    Reply
    • Sarah

      Apr 16, 2018 at 12:08 pm

      Unfortunately no. Once you bake it, the probiotics are gone.

  6. Bill

    Sep 30, 2017 at 10:39 pm

    I feed my starter twice per day unless I have it in the fridge and in that case I feed it once per week.

    Reply
  7. Andreas

    Aug 1, 2017 at 8:31 am

    How often should I feed my starter?

    Reply
  8. Andreas

    Aug 1, 2017 at 6:54 am

    I know, common sense, in the same way that we boil water to kill harmful bacteria.

    Reply
  9. Andreas

    Aug 1, 2017 at 4:28 am

    Isn’t most of the yeast in the sourdough, killed off in the oven?

    Reply
    • Sarah

      Aug 1, 2017 at 6:45 am

      Yes, sourdough is a fermented food, but there are no probiotics or beneficial yeasts in the bread unlike what some people believe. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/sourdough-bread-myths/

  10. Susan

    Feb 5, 2017 at 7:10 pm

    Yes, I had also got the impression from your article that sourdough contained no yeast at all, which confused me as so many references talk about capturing wild yeast for the starter. Also was wondering about your historical references about the first use of yeast since are so many ancient people who used leavening in their breads.

    Reply
    • Sarah

      Feb 6, 2017 at 8:14 am

      What I meant is that baker’s yeast is not added as a separate ingredient as this artificially speeds up the process of making the bread. Yes, there is wild yeast in the sourdough starter, but this is along with the beneficial probiotics as well. When the word “leavening” is used in ancient texts, this means a natural leaven like sourdough, not baker’s yeast.

« Older Comments
Newer Comments »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Sidebar

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

5 Secrets to a Strong Immune System

Loading

The Healthy Home Economist

Since 2002, Sarah has been a Health and Nutrition Educator dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. Read More

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Check Out My Books

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

5 Secrets to a Strong Immune System

Loading

Contact the Healthy Home Economist. The information on this website has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease. By accessing or using this website, you agree to abide by the Terms of Service, Full Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Affiliate Disclosure, and Comment Policy.

Copyright © 2009–2025 · The Healthy Home Economist · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc.