The Sourdough School

PIONEERING A NEW APPROACH TO BAKING AS LIFESTYLE MEDICINE

Learn to bake, teach & prescribe Baking as Lifestyle Medicine
Follow on Instagram

Soil Association
Our gardens are certified organic.
+44 (0)1604 881274
bookings@sourdough.co.uk
Follow on Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Student Login

Navigation
  • About us
    • Contact Us & FAQ
    • Attending the School In Person Information
    • General FAQ’s about The School
    • Policies & Procedures
    • Our Graduates
    • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy
    • Health & Safety, Legal Requirements & Terms
  • Courses
    • Certificate – Baking as Lifestyle Medicine.
    • 2 Year Online Diploma – train to prescribe baking as lifestyle medicine .
    • 7 day in person Retreat + Certificate in Baking as Lifestyle Medicine
    • Prescription Baking Courses
    • Course reviews
  • Resources
    • Login
    • Accommodation & Local Area
    • Legal Requirements & Terms
    • The Sourdough School Health And Safety Policy
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Equipment
    • Ingredients
  • Resources

Bread and histamine intolerance

Firstly let me start by stating that if you suspect that you have histamine intolerance, it’s important to talk to a healthcare provider for an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan. In some cases, dietary modifications, such as avoiding high-histamine foods, may be recommended to manage symptoms.

One of the things that I often get asked about is histamine intolerance as it relates to sourdough bread.

Let’s start by looking at what histamine intolerance is: a buildup of histamine in the body. This stockpile of histamine comes from a reduced ability to break down histamine from foods by a digestive enzyme – diamine oxidase (DAO) – in the gut. In some ways it’s not dissimilar to having lactose intolerance, both linked to an enzyme deficiency. There are many reasons for why the buildup can happen:

  1. In most instances, it’s gut dysbiosis and distress to the gut lining;
  2. It could be due to medications that are blocking the effects of DAO; or
  3. There could be a genetic factor to it.

Established research shows that it’s the balance of the microbiome that impacts the levels of histamine your body produces. When we see an imbalance, there is an increase in the abundance of microbes that secrete histamine. These levels are also impacted by stress as during tense times it’s not uncommon to find some bacteria diminished by stress hormones whilst others flourish. There’s a synergistic relationship between bacteria and hormones, and this certainly seems to be the case when it comes to this balance of bacteria.

Histamine is a chemical found in the tissues of the body, often recognised in the form of an allergic reaction. We often see people who believe they have food allergies but are in fact experiencing the symptoms of a histamine response. They describe themselves as being sensitive or supersensitive. This is an area leading to a great deal of frustration and distress in not being able to identify why symptoms exist that resemble food allergies and intolerances.

Spotting the signs

The symptoms of histamine intolerance may be inconsistent, worse on some days and not on others. They don’t necessarily show up in conventional medical tests either. When histamine levels in the body are high, digestive symptoms can show up like bloating accompanied by abdominal pain and diarrhoea. It can also impact your cardiovascular system – lightheadedness, low blood pressure and even irregular heartbeat. Headaches and hives are some other common reactions. Respiratory symptoms like asthma can even be exacerbated.

Interestingly for me one of the main indicators was the fluctuation in my weight. I believe my body was trying to hold onto more fluid almost as a “dilution strategy” for my body. My weight would massively increase overnight if I had it an overload of histamine, sometimes up to eight or nine pounds of water.

In my case, with high histamine levels due to extremely low gut microbial diversity, I thought I had cystitis. I was in immense discomfort for almost a year until I tested for a wide range of conditions. My GP would regularly find blood in my urine and the signs of cystitis yet found no bacteria. After doing some scans, I was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis. It was only when I identified that histamine intolerance was causing my symptoms that I figured out the triggers. That was in 2008.

At that time, one of the fastest ways to relieve the agony of my symptoms was to take an antihistamine tablet which provided instant symptom relief but didn’t resolve the underlying cause of my interstitial cystitis.

Trigger foods

I was lucky enough to have recognised my histamine intolerance, but there are no reliable tests to diagnose it. There are some tests now in the market that measure DAO serum levels (anything less than 10 units per millilitre is considered low), but this doesn’t necessarily look at what’s going on in the gut. When it came down to identifying my trigger foods and looking generally at the foods that activate histamine release in the body, it’s important to try and understand first how histamine is produced.

Histamine is created by bacteria that are related to the decomposition of food – bacteria that can live in fermented foods, cheese, fish, spinach and certain foods in the nightshade family (aubergine and tomatoes). Whilst all the advice out in the world right now is to significantly increase probiotics, if you have histamine buildup in the body, an increase can really set off your symptoms. It’s the same with trying to get your omega-3s by eating more tuna or mackerel but these are generally canned. These types of foods or any kind of preserved meat or fermented food are going to exacerbate histamine symptoms.

For me personally, one of the foods that contained biogenic amine (decarboxylation products of amino acids) was citrus fruit. What I thought at the time was a healthy habit, putting lemon juice in my water turned out to be a disaster and triggered high histamine levels.

Histamine Intolerance Awareness has the following information on foods which are high and low in histamine. [Vanessa I added this, do you want it? – Lucy]

When I hear the description of someone suffering from histamine intolerance, the very first thing I advise is that they go and see their GP and discuss their symptoms. Taking along a food diary empowers you to communicate some history to your GP. It is important to write down your symptoms within the diary and score them.

Most nutritionists now understand histamine intolerance. I would suggest speaking to one who specialises in nutritional advice for food allergies. Venetia Mitchell is our in-house Nutritionist and Research Assistant here at The Sourdough School and works online with individuals across the UK.

The sourdough dilemma

One of the things we encourage at The Sourdough School is eating live bacteria. This form of bacteria combined with the fermentation process is where people who are suffering with histamine intolerance may find certain aspects of our program challenging.

Sourdough – a fermented food in itself – along with all other fermented foods can contribute higher levels of histamine. At the same time, the grains and fibre in bread are what is so desperately needed by your bacteria to rebalance your biome. The very fermentation process that breaks down the fibre making it more bioavailable attracts the very same bacteria that are causing the buildup of the histamine. This presents a dilemma.

The way we recommend eating our sourdough is symbiotically alongside cultured foods.

Symbiotic eating is being in symbiosis with the rhythm of the seasons and farming practices like crop rotation which support regenerative agriculture throughout the year.

Symbiotic eating on the other hand is the sequence and the foods you eat with your bread. Symbiotic eating is probiotic supplementation with prebiotic food to optimise the postbiotic impact of food. If that sounds terribly complex, think of it as eating a slice of sourdough bread made from a botanical blend flour – loaded with herbs and a variety of grains for diversity – with live cultured butter alongside a quinoa salad or lentils.

This is a foundational approach to eating that’s multidimensional, nourishing the gut whilst being in touch with the season and the planet.

A fresh break

DAO supplements to treat symptoms of histamine intolerance are now available but they can be quite expensive. My own personal way around it was eating fresh foods and consuming everything at maximum freshness. That was hard because I had to cook almost everything from scratch. I spent about three months just quietly and determinately rebuilding my biome through an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables. That also meant strategically purchasing fish that had been caught and frozen instantly on the boat so there was no time for histamine bacteria to form. There are specific websites where you can buy fish that haven’t been sitting around. [Vanessa – did you have some sites in mind you wanted to link to here?]

Cooking doesn’t get rid of histamine either, so you cannot buy histamine-containing foods and hope to cook it off. Instead, the answer is to give your body a break by consuming low-histamine foods and predominantly fresh.

I think there is a huge amount of research still needed to understand histamine intolerance. In some ways, it’s an indication of high levels of dysbiosis and imbalance within the immune system. When you end up with this kind of debilitating food hypersensitivity, it can be frustrating to not know which foods are triggers for you.

I’m not a fan of a restricted diet but from personal experience having to rebuild a significantly damaged gut, the first step may be taking a break from your sourdough. As heartbreaking as that might sound, most people who put themselves onto a program to rebuild their gut through following a diet which prioritises fresh food can return to eating sourdough after six to eight weeks. That was certainly the case with me.

Walk before you run

What I suggest is that you speak to a nutritionist and look at how you can incorporate fibre into your diet that rebuilds the balance of your gut. When you start to find that your symptoms are under control, then you can start to look at eating bread again – not just sourdough bread. I would suggest starting with a light fermentation, like an ambient loaf which has been warm proved. Perhaps one of the 10-minute loaves.

Keep the dough in a warm prover (28°C) for five or six hours and then bake immediately. A fast straight dough will keep the bacterial activity to a minimum whilst prioritising the yeast so you will get a nice rise and it will not be too sour. It is the opposite advice that I would give to someone who has blood sugar issues or potentially non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS).

Not being a terribly broken-down bread fermentation-wise, I would suggest beginning with 30 to 50 percent whole grain. As tempting as it might be to scoff down the entire loaf after abstinence from your bread, you will want to slice it up and freeze immediately after it’s cool to avoid any further spoilage. This allows you to enjoy one slice at a time, toasting the slices lightly and then sense how you feel. Jot down a score in your food diary.

Go at it slowly. Re-introduce your food and your fermentation as though you are beginning a new training program. You wouldn’t attempt to run a marathon after recovering from a foot injury, neither should you attempt to digest a whole loaf after having taken a break from it for a while. If your symptoms are returning, pause and continue with the rebuilding of your biome stage in your histamine diet.

It’s complex

One of the most difficult problems that you can encounter when you have gastric issues such as histamine intolerance is that it’s never one thing. Often there are many complex aspects to it. Again, speaking from personal experience, I had symptoms of non-celiac gluten sensitivity, IBS and histamine intolerance all at the same time.

Introducing bread that was high in fructose (because it wasn’t well broken down through fermentation), triggered IBS symptoms. If I was eating a lightly fermented whole-grain bread, I suffered from bloating and gas. Recovery for me involved reintroducing bran in staged amounts – increasing from 20 percent whole meal to 40 percent whole meal slowly over a period of 12 weeks. It’s a recovery program that we teach here at The Sourdough School, and I think it will make a huge difference.

Histamine intolerance is an area that is not well understood and needs more concrete information and study. One of the books I find most useful when making recommendations is Dr Will Bulsiewicz’s The Fibre Fuelled Cookbook. He has some fantastic information and resources in there.

If you’re reading a feature like this one, you are obviously beginning to understand the symbiotic relationship with your gut. Like all relationships, sometimes you go through tough times. Relationships require work and building. You are going to have to rebuild your relationship with your gut, which requires time and being kind to yourself.

In navigating through my diagnosis, I discovered more about myself than I knew was possible. I wish you courage in your journey. If there is anything we can do to support you, please get in contact with us. We’d be delighted to help and look forward to when you can begin eating fermented foods and sourdough again according to the Baking as Lifestyle Medicine Protocols.

Existing Member Login

All reasonable care is taken when writing about health aspects of bread, but the information it contains is not intended to take the place of treatment by a qualified medical practitioner. You must seek professional advice if you are in any doubt about any medical condition. Any application of the ideas and information contained on this website is at the reader's sole discretion and risk.

A NEW APPROACH

👉🏻 For the past 3 years we’ve been working on something incredible … prescription sourdough bread making courses for our @sourdoughclub members 

📈We have had amazing advances in healthcare, but there is no pill to cure poor diet. The best medicine is prevention via a healthy lifestyle, and many studies have shown that people who eat healthily and exercise regularly sleep better, have less anxiety and depression, have more energy, and lower their risk of chronic illness overall.

🙌 Vanessa’s work on Bread & the Impact on the Gut Microbiome has been turned into something extraordinary. Prescription bread-making courses as a lifestyle intervention, and the Bread Protocol we teach here is designed to address the way you live, exploring behaviour related to nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, social support and environmental exposures. These courses are 12 weeks long, and designed to maintain health and prevent disease not just in individuals bit in patients and populations, so we have 2 ways to enrol on a course: 

1️⃣ SOCIAL PRESCRIPTION 
If your doctor or healthcare practitioner is one of  our Sourdough School graduates and they feel that this bread-making prescription course is something that will improve your health, then they may can prescribe the course for you as a social prescription free.

2️⃣ SELF PRESCRIPTION 
You can self-prescribe these courses by enrolling yourself on a course to improve your health and wellbeing.

📰 If you are interested in learning more about the prescription courses then please sign up to the newsletters as we will be announcing their launch over the coming weeks and months. 

@vanessakimbell
@drmiguelmateas 
@dralexdavidson 
@dksherratt 

#lifestylemedicine #preventativemedicine #systemschange #socialprescribingday #socialprescribing
🧘 LAST ORDERS TODAY 🧘 I’m prepping the st 🧘 LAST ORDERS TODAY 🧘

I’m prepping the starters to post out on Thursday.

I was thinking why sourdough all these years? I guess it’s because is alive… it’s a culture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria. We might like to think we can control it, but we can’t control everything. Things change when we bake. The flour changes, the ambient temperature changes, or something happens during the middle of the day and your baking routine changes.

We can be very critical of ourselves. Starting the day by looking in the mirror and criticising our physical appearance. Or looking at something we’ve done or said and overanalysing it. Often, without realising, some of us can be incredibly negative.
It’s the same with bread. I notice that many people are self-depreciating and, while they aspire to make beautiful loaves, they have a distinct lack of acceptance that creating a really aesthetically stunning loaves takes time. It’s an art. It takes many years to be able to understand the nuances of each flour and how each one behaves to create bread. There is no instant fix. And I wouldn’t want there to be.

If you want an instant fix, go out and buy a packet mix – that way the work is done for you. In sourdough there’s no instant fix. That is the whole point of it really. That’s why we celebrate when we do make those incredibly beautiful loaves. And what you are actually celebrating isn’t high levels of gluten or high levels of hydration. It’s that person’s ability to have understood and connected to the flour, to their environment, to the yeast, to the timings and rhythm and everything coming together to create something that is joyous to eat.

To learn more about what we do here at The Sourdough Club and the courses we teach, follow the link in the bio to read 

#mindfulbaking #sourdough #sourdoughsclub #bread #sourdoughlove #sourdoughlover #naturalleavened #leavening #realbread #breadmaking #bakebread #makebread #makerealbread #sourdoughstories #bakingforlove #bakingtherapy #sourdoughbaking
🧂 ARTISAN INGREDIENTS FOR ARTISAN BREAD 🧂 A 🧂 ARTISAN INGREDIENTS FOR ARTISAN BREAD 🧂

Artisan bread starts with artisan ingredients. Honest ingredients that have been grown and harvested with respect for both the people and the earth. The flour has to be organic, the water chlorine free and the yeast has to be sourdough, and so it follows that the salt has to be similarly harvested with principles that are in synergy with our own. Salt making was, up until the industrial revolution, an artisanal craft. Much like bread making salt is also an artisan product that has been industrialised, so we use a hand-harvested salt in our bread.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
In our shop, we sell unrefined salt specifically for sourdough - Natural salt contains all of its trace minerals and other elements that are naturally a part of its origin. Our salt is not exposed to chemicals and does not contain anti-caking agents.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Follow the link in our bio to our shop, where you can find the best artisan ingredients for your bread! 
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
#artisan #salt #iamamember #sourdoughclub #sourdough #sourdoughbread #naturallyleavened #realbread #sourdoughbaking #bakingbread #breadmaking #homebakedbread #sourdoughlove
DID YOU KNOW WE HAVE AN ONLINE SHOP & CAN PURCHASE DID YOU KNOW WE HAVE AN ONLINE SHOP & CAN PURCHASE MY WHITE SOURDOUGH STARTER?
(with worldwide delivery)
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I have several sourdough starters but The French white starter is one that I have been using since I was 11 years old and originates in the bakery I grew up baking within France. It takes a bit longer to reach it’s peak and is generally slower and sweeter, and much more forgiving of being neglected for a week, so the one I recommend for beginners. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We have verbal confirmation that the starter originated over 115 years ago and If you swipe right in the video you can listen to me chatting to one of the older residents of the village confirming that bakery did not shut during the war either .. & it has been maintained ever since... it’s a lovely story. Although the microbes double every 20 – 30 minutes when they are refreshed ... so it is either over a century old or 30 minutes old depending on how you want to look at it. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
You can purchase a pot of my starter, along with a grey moon kilner jar & a mini video course on looking after your starter. 
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
TAP THE PICTURE TO SHOP.
 
Swipe right to see the amazing video of the French bakery where the starter originated from @vanessakimbell has been baking with this starter for over 20 years … and first baked almost 40 years ago with it …#romantic 
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
#breadbosses #breadporn #flourwatersalt #breadtalk #bread #breadstagram #sourdough #sourdoughschool #bread #sourdoughlove #sourdoughlover #naturalleavened #leavening #levain #realbread #breadmaking #bakebread #makebread #makerealbread #learntobakebread #breadmakingclass #sourdoughstories #bakingforlove #bakingtherapy #sourdoughbaking #bannetons #bakery
🌾 BARLEY - DO AS THE ROMANS DO 🌾
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Oats & Barley. We love both, but this week we have been diving to barley with our students, learning about nutritional value, what role plays in supporting key butyrate producers for gut health and why gladiators were call 'barley-eaters'!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And naturally, we will be talking about how we can incorporate barley into our baking and our botanical blends.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
To find out more, become a student of the Sourdough Club! 
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
#grains #wheat #einkorn #emmer #spelt #heritagegrains #freshlymilledflour #milledflour #milling #freshlymilled #botanicalblend #fromscratch #unrefined #mockmillproud #mockmill
Follow on Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Email Sign Up

Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2023 Vanessa Kimbell
Call +44 (0)1604 881274 | Email bookings@sourdough.co.uk
Registered in England & Wales: 08412236
Website by Callia Web