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I also keep a starter and bake sourdough regularly. The only thing IMHO that can be an issue is just eating too much carbs (because it's so damn good) or sensi

I also keep a starter and bake sourdough regularly. The only thing IMHO that can be an issue is just eating too much carbs (because it's so damn good) or sensitivity to gluten. However, it is known that sourdough/pain-au-levain is more digestible than regular bread for folks with gluten intolerance. Sourdough is decidedly more acidic (that's why it's called "sour") than dough which has been risen with commercial yeast. This acid partially breaks down the gluten in the dough during fermentation. People have been eating naturally fermented bread since the dawn of civilization. The bacteria and yeast in properly fermenting dough do an excellent job of keeping any nasty stuff out.

amluto 8y ago
> However, it is known that sourdough/pain-au-levain is more digestible than regular bread for folks with gluten intolerance. I’ve heard this many times, but I don’t know if it rises to the level of “it’s known”. It’s not even clearly known that “gluten intolerance” exists outside the context of celiac disease, and sourdough definitely does not help with celiac. There is a theory that “gluten intolerance” is actually intolerance of certain sugars, sometimes called FODMAPs, that are found in wheat, rye, barley, and quite a few non-cereal foods. I’ve never seen a paper about this, but I could easily believe that many sourdoughs ferment those sugars, making the bread more tolerable. Finally, a little anecdote about gluten intolerance. I know someone who claimed to be gluten intolerant. She felt much better when she avoided gluten. At one point, I baked a fresh challah, and she decided to make an exception and try the challah. After eating maybe a pound of challah all by itself, she felt terrible. And lo and behold, we had a diagnosis! Eating large amounts of bread made her feel sick! Now she eats bread in moderation and she feels okay :)
- sureaboutthis 8y ago
  I own restaurants. I have to force myself to not roll my eyes at the numbers of people who come in with growing fear of gluten claiming to be allergic to it. One parent even asked us to prepare one child's salad with separate utensils to avoid even the slightest contact with bread. Touching bread does not cause a reaction to gluten.
  - tdullien 8y ago
    So I think we should distinguish between "gluten intolerance" (which is often self-diagnosed) and "celiac disease" (actual medical condition with allergic reaction to gluten). For people with the latter, even trace amounts of gluten are harmful: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1923558 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1923558 Even inhaled gluten is enough to cause immune system reaction: https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc063112 https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc063112 The generally accepted safe threshold of gluten intake for people with celiac disease is somewhere on the order between 6 and 30mg (depending on the study). Even that may be high, there are case studies of individuals where as little as 1mg of gluten prevented recovery of their gut: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15497770 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15497770 So the parent that asked for separate utensils is not insane; sharing a bread knife between gluten-free and gluten-containing bread can be harmful already. (A close family member and another close friend of mine have celiac disease, and it is seriously not a joke)
    - amluto 8y ago
      Minor nit: celiac disease isn’t an allergy. It’s a very different underlying mechanism with very different effects.
    - fiter 8y ago
      A slice of bread weighs about an ounce or 28 grams. There is less than 3 grams of protein in a slice of bread. About 80% of the protein is gluten which gives 2.5 grams of gluten per slice. So at the lowest exposure level, 1 milligram, this would mean making sure not to eat 1/2500th of the slice of bread. The slice of bread is about 4 inches by 4 inches by 0.5 inches giving a volume of 8 cubic inches. 1/2500th of that slice is 0.0032 cubic inches or a cubic piece >1/8 inch on each side. Based on the above calculation, I think it's probably ok to use the same utensil as long as there are no obvious crumbs.
  - PebblesRox 8y ago
    For a child with celiac disease, eating even a few crumbs of gluten is enough to set off the auto-immune reaction and cause intestinal damage. I agree that a lot of the fear of gluten is overblown, but there are people for whom it really does matter.
- crispyambulance 8y ago
  Well, I can't say to what extent people are actually intolerant to gluten or not. But it is clear that sourdough DOES break down gluten during fermentation. Here's a lucid observational demonstration of that ... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsCpdCsJFr4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsCpdCsJFr4) -- it's in French, but they have really good bread making videos.

amluto 8y ago

> However, it is known that sourdough/pain-au-levain is more digestible than regular bread for folks with gluten intolerance. I’ve heard this many times, but I don’t know if it rises to the level of “it’s known”. It’s not even clearly known that “gluten intolerance” exists outside the context of celiac disease, and sourdough definitely does not help with celiac. There is a theory that “gluten intolerance” is actually intolerance of certain sugars, sometimes called FODMAPs, that are found in wheat, rye, barley, and quite a few non-cereal foods. I’ve never seen a paper about this, but I could easily believe that many sourdoughs ferment those sugars, making the bread more tolerable. Finally, a little anecdote about gluten intolerance. I know someone who claimed to be gluten intolerant. She felt much better when she avoided gluten. At one point, I baked a fresh challah, and she decided to make an exception and try the challah. After eating maybe a pound of challah all by itself, she felt terrible. And lo and behold, we had a diagnosis! Eating large amounts of bread made her feel sick! Now she eats bread in moderation and she feels okay :)

sureaboutthis 8y ago
I own restaurants. I have to force myself to not roll my eyes at the numbers of people who come in with growing fear of gluten claiming to be allergic to it. One parent even asked us to prepare one child's salad with separate utensils to avoid even the slightest contact with bread. Touching bread does not cause a reaction to gluten.
- tdullien 8y ago
  So I think we should distinguish between "gluten intolerance" (which is often self-diagnosed) and "celiac disease" (actual medical condition with allergic reaction to gluten). For people with the latter, even trace amounts of gluten are harmful: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1923558 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1923558 Even inhaled gluten is enough to cause immune system reaction: https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc063112 https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc063112 The generally accepted safe threshold of gluten intake for people with celiac disease is somewhere on the order between 6 and 30mg (depending on the study). Even that may be high, there are case studies of individuals where as little as 1mg of gluten prevented recovery of their gut: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15497770 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15497770 So the parent that asked for separate utensils is not insane; sharing a bread knife between gluten-free and gluten-containing bread can be harmful already. (A close family member and another close friend of mine have celiac disease, and it is seriously not a joke)
  - amluto 8y ago
    Minor nit: celiac disease isn’t an allergy. It’s a very different underlying mechanism with very different effects.
  - fiter 8y ago
    A slice of bread weighs about an ounce or 28 grams. There is less than 3 grams of protein in a slice of bread. About 80% of the protein is gluten which gives 2.5 grams of gluten per slice. So at the lowest exposure level, 1 milligram, this would mean making sure not to eat 1/2500th of the slice of bread. The slice of bread is about 4 inches by 4 inches by 0.5 inches giving a volume of 8 cubic inches. 1/2500th of that slice is 0.0032 cubic inches or a cubic piece >1/8 inch on each side. Based on the above calculation, I think it's probably ok to use the same utensil as long as there are no obvious crumbs.
- PebblesRox 8y ago
  For a child with celiac disease, eating even a few crumbs of gluten is enough to set off the auto-immune reaction and cause intestinal damage. I agree that a lot of the fear of gluten is overblown, but there are people for whom it really does matter.
crispyambulance 8y ago
Well, I can't say to what extent people are actually intolerant to gluten or not. But it is clear that sourdough DOES break down gluten during fermentation. Here's a lucid observational demonstration of that ... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsCpdCsJFr4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsCpdCsJFr4) -- it's in French, but they have really good bread making videos.