Learning Objective
How our Baking As Lifestyle Medicine protocol fulfils the first - and arguably most important- lifestyle medicine pillar: healthy eating.
Estimated - including Symbiotic eating Topic 8 hours
How The Baking As Lifestyle Medicine (BALM) Protocol Fulfils The 6 Pillars Of Lifestyle Medicine – Part 2 of 7- Healthy Eating
According to The British Society Of Lifestyle Medicine: “Lifestyle Medicine supports people to reduce their consumption of ultra-processed foods by teaching the knowledge and skills required to follow healthier eating patterns of people’s own choosing.”
The BALM protocol is structured to support healthy eating at every level, particularly by switching out ultra-processed white bread for organic, minimally processed whole grains and artisanal bakes.
Furthermore, the protocol is crafted to cultivate diversity and balance in the gut microbiome by feeding beneficial bacteria with fibre and probiotics. Without further ado, let’s break down the many ways that our BALM protocol supports healthy eating:
Swap refined grains for heart-healthy whole-grains
Pound for pound, wheat is the most nutritious and affordable ingredient available, containing high levels of fibre, antioxidants and phytochemicals. But not all bread is made equal – largely owing to modern industrial processing methods.
Industrially processed bread (the homogenous white loaves lining supermarket shelves) are made using refined grains, stripped of their nutrient-dense bran and germ. As a result, this ultra-processed white bread is low in fibre and key nutrients (as well as being packed full of chemical additives).
Our BALM protocol takes a strong stance against refined grains, opting for the use of natural heart-healthy whole grains in their place. Research consistently shows that whole-grain consumption is linked to a reduced risk for obesity, bowel cancer and heart disease, among other lifestyle conditions.
Reduce consumption of ultra-processed bread
Emerging research suggests that the more ultra-processed food a person eats, the higher their risk for multiple lifestyle diseases. And above them all, industrially processed bread is the most common ultra-processed food in the UK, making up 11 per cent of the average person’s diet.
Firstly, industrially processed bread made with refined grains can cause blood sugar spikes – a long-term risk factor for diabetes and other lifestyle diseases. What’s more, processed bread is often packed full of chemical additives, some of which can harm the community of bacteria residing in our large intestines.
All 7 principles in our BALM protocol are designed to force a transition from nutritionally empty ultra-processed bread – stripped of its nutrients and fibre content – towards artisanal, homemade bakes that nourish the body.
Symbiotic eating (feeding the gut microbiome)
Our protocol places a particular emphasis on “eating symbiotically”, which means feeding the trillions of bacteria living in the gut microbiome. Emerging research has shown that our gut microbiome is crucial to human health, influencing everything from metabolism to immunity. We have developed three key principles to encourage symbiotic eating more widely, as laid out below:
Increase fibre intake
Epidemiological research consistently shows that the more fibre you eat, the lower your risk of bowel cancer, stroke, heart disease and obesity. For this reason, the second principle of our BALM protocol stresses the importance of eating 30g of fibre daily- as recommended by the World Health Organisation.
Eating a rich selection of plant-based fibre has been shown to increase the diversity and balance of our gut bacteria – two key markers of microbiome health. When gut bacteria ferment indigestible fibres – such as those found in whole grains – they metabolise anti-inflammatory compounds called short-chain fatty acids.
Add probiotics to your bread
Studies show that supplementing your diet with probiotics – live beneficial bacteria – can reduce the levels of inflammatory markers in the blood whilst increasing microbiome diversity. Probiotics can also help support the microbiome when it is challenged – by antibiotics or illness, for instance.
In light of this, principle number 6 on the BALM protocol asks our bakers to increase their consumption of probiotics such as kimchi, fermented yoghurt and sauerkraut.
Fermentation
Research consistently shows that sourdough fermentation changes the structure of bread for the better, increasing the bioavailability of antioxidants whilst reducing it’s glycemic index score. By doing so, sourdough fermentation can aid in blood sugar management and increase the mineral content of home bakes.
Moreover, sourdough fermentation can degrade certain FODMAPS in whole-grain bread, namely fructans, thereby increasing the digestibility of the end product. Better still, it can do this without affecting the content of the slowly fermented and well-tolerated dietary fibre. As a result, sourdough bread can increase the digestibility of the end product for those with digestive issues such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
Sequenced eating
The BALM protocol doesn’t just focus on changing what bread people eat to improve health, but how they eat it as well; for over 20 years the Sourdough School has pioneered sequenced eating techniques to help students manage blood sugar levels.
For example, by changing the order in which you eat macronutrients, you can influence your blood sugar responses. Utilising these techniques can help in the management and prevention of type 2 diabetes.
An invitation to change: empowering people to better nutrition via knowledge
Traditional health advice to “move more and eat less” has been proven ineffective repeatedly. Here at the Sourdough School, we see the futility of this didactic approach. In its place we invite bakers to discover a new approach to baking as a lifestyle intervention, empowering them with knowledge.
Our curriculum culminates in a practical exam where bakers create and academically reference their own nourishing recipes in line with the BALM protocol. As far as we know, we’re the only place of education where you are encouraged to eat your homework! Better still, our student’s recipes are added to a growing functional food database which acts as a lifestyle medicine pharmacy for our students.
In short, the BALM protocol is structured to support healthy eating at every level – from the type of grain to the method of preparation and even how we consume the bread. Drawing on our wealth of research and extensive database of academic papers, we equip students with the knowledge and skills to bake their way to better health. In turn, our students create recipes to augment our growing functional food database. Each recipe is academically referenced and built to help manage or minimise lifestyle diseases.
Next up, we’re going to explore how the BALM protocol embodies the second pillar of lifestyle medicine: encouraging mental well-being.
