Sourdough Bread: The Doughy Version of Sauerkraut

Sourdough bread is made by mixing flour and water and allowing the mixture to ferment. When it turns sour and gassy, it's used as leavening to make dough rise. Then, a little bit of unused dough is saved to make leavening for the next batch.

Millions of yeasts and billions of lactobacilli go to work on the dough. The result is an incredibly complex bread that contains a ton of nutrients including B1-B6, B-12, vitamin E, selenium, manganese, calcium, etc., in addition to complex proteins and fatty acids. Furthermore, sourdough pretty much shoots down any reason people might have for not eating bread:

• The gluten it contains has been broken down by the bacteria into its constituent amino acids.
• The bacteria have produced acetic, propionic, and lactic acid, which have reduced starch availability, thereby lowering the glycemic index and improving glucose metabolism in general.
• The acetic acid also acts as a bread preservative.
• Sourdough bread has a nominal amount of phytic acid, thus allowing your gut to absorb most of sourdough's nutrients.