My sourdough bread journey

My sourdough bread journey has meant escape from obesity, no prostate troubles and avoidance of statins; the life without medication is a joy.

I find it interesting how “chance” meetings can shape one’s life. The first of three such events was the day when studying in Chicago (I now live in South Africa) a fellow student invited me to his home. His wife was milling wheat before baking her own sourdough loaf; the aroma from that flour as it was being ground was never to be forgotten. The commercial bread in the States at that time was absolutely awful; her lunch found a place in my heart.

There was no separation of endosperm, bran and germ; the flavour and texture of the wholegrain in her bread were sublime.

The seed was sown but lay dormant for ten years until a patient arrived with a very sore lower back; he had lifted umpteen 70kg bags. Yes, I’m a DC. We became friends; he and his family consulted me for decades. We talked; eventually a sack of wheat.

Life is a journey and the dots connect. At the time a nephew was returning from Germany; he brought me a stone mill. One which I might say still grinds daily some thirty years later; none of this “planned obsolescence” back in those days. But it was bread baked traditionally with dried yeast.

• Home bake bread flour
  

And then came the third salient encounter. I was invited to give a presentation on beekeeping, also a hobby, at an aloe festival. At the end of the day we drove around to the other highlights; a woman who had the most interesting loaf for sale at half price. I could see it was special, something quite different to the bread I baked. Someone had ordered a sourdough starter and hadn’t come to collect.

It was the beginning of a step up to a whole new realm of baking. We purchased the loaf and the starter. They changed my life; I could eat bread for supper again without excruciating stomach pain.

The bag of wheat from my friend with the very painful slipped disc went to waste. The weevils took over; our hens were delighted!

Google has its critics but it led after investigation to the discovery that freezing wheat for two weeks will kill all the weevils and their eggs. We now order 300kg every year; some freshly-milled wholegrain flour is sold at the local farmers’ market.

• Storing wheat berries
  

The final step in our real bread journey was an introduction to the Blue Zones; where living into vigorous nineties is the norm and ten times as many folk reach a century. In all five they bake only sourdough. Emulating the lifestyle in those five parts of the world has been another huge step up to wellness.

• Blue Zone longevity
  

Bread Matters

There is one other moment that must be mentioned. We were flying from London to Amsterdam; reading the daily rag I came across an article about “Bread Matters” by Andrew Whitley. It was another of those light-bulb moments. I had to have that book! Andrew led me into the science that lies behind baking the perfect loaf.

• Easy sourdough bread recipe
  

I’m still learning on my sourdough bread journey. Only recently I gleaned from a synergistic hobby that in the early part of fermentation, yeast demands an aerobic environment; plenty of oxygen. The other is brewing.

Vigorously forking the starter after feeding it and shaking the must to aerate the yeast improved the texture of the loaf astonishingly; and gave the mead a leg up.

After the initial vigorous growth of the yeast in the presence of much oxygen, both in bread and mead, the process becomes anaerobic. Alcohol when brewing and in bread sour acids are formed deep in the dough in the absence of air. Carbon dioxide is produced; both from the starter and the wild strains in the bran.

Changing to wholegrain sourdough bread helped me lose 10kg and get on top of my insulin resistance and raised blood glucose.

Further learning revealed how the bran in whole grains and acids in sourdough delay gastric emptying, slowing the digestion of carbs to glucose.

I confess to using a bread machine. It takes just five minutes every morning to mill the flour, add honey and butter; sourdough starter, water and salt too. I cheat with half a teaspoon of dried yeast to make it lighter.

Whole grains and prostate cancer

One not so small benefit of enjoying true whole grains every day is a PSA of 0.9; my urologist was astounded that at seventy my prostate was in such good shape. Waking only once at night to visit the loo means peaceful sleep; it's all about a phytonutrient called a lignan found in the bran. Men who eat bread made with refined flour are vulnerable.

• Lignans protect the prostate gland
  

My sourdough bread journey

My sourdough bread journey began with watching a friend milling wheat; the heavenly aroma given off by freshly-ground flour is enjoyed only by the privileged few willing to invest time in their wellness.

Life is a journey. I have now bought an industrial mill and am about to start supplying flour and maizemeal to a local creche. Nearly 50% of children in South Africa are permanently stunted, mentally and/or physically by the age of five in many rural villages; 80pc of those in grade 4 cannot read with understanding. Ultra-refined grains are a large part of the malady.

Whole grains and sourdough make the perfect fit.

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