Case Study: Sourdough & Anaemia

Karen Kausmeyer very kindly agreed to talk to Vanessa about her experience of anaemia and how sourdough changed that.

One of the most well-documented pathways of the fermentation process is the neutralisation of phytic acid. Phytic acid has a chelating capacity, which means it grabs hold of all the micronutrients and pulls them out of you. It doesn’t do this as some kind of nasty trick to make you lose your nourishment; it actually does it because its role in the seed is to draw all the micronutrients towards the growing embryo. Of course, in bread, it doesn’t realise that it no longer needs to do that job. Some of the studies have been very clear that long, slow fermentation of wholegrain bread has resulted in a significantly higher proportion of your nutrients being made bioavailable to you, which increases your level of nourishment.

Several years ago, Karen contacted me to say something extraordinary had happened and that the only thing she had changed in her life was making my sourdough. She’d taken the information and everything that was relevant to her consultant and he also concluded that the only possible change she’d made that could have resulted in the significant improvement in her anaemia was her changing the way that she processed her bread.

This video is Karen and I in conversation. It’s a very relaxed conversation, just exploring where she came from, how she got poorly, what happened with her anaemia and how she now feels. Obviously, this isn’t medical advice, it’s just a conversation; it’s here for you to watch, to listen, to absorb, and to consider what those mechanisms might be. I will add a slight caveat and say that if you suspect you have anaemia, or if you already have anaemia, then you do need to be in discussion with your GP and monitoring those levels rather than just changing your bread. However, if you also find that there are any significant improvements, I would love to know. I’ve had many reports over the years and, as I say, a lot of information in the case studies is anecdotal – it’s people’s personal stories. However, on this occasion, the studies and the research do very clearly show the mechanism of how the phytase enzymes neutralise the phytic acid and allow the bread to become more nourishing. Of course, that mechanism doesn’t just apply to the minerals that are in the bread; it also applies to the supplements you take, or any other minerals that you have from other foods that you eat. It’s not choosy about what it grabs on to, and it’ll take whatever’s in your gut at that point in time. That’s its job.

Enjoy the video and let me know your thoughts in the comments below or on the forum.