[graeme]

Two things I can say as someone who went this route:

* Try a gluten test if you have had exposure recently enough to do it. It’s good to know.

* A sizeable chunk of people who have trouble with gluten may actually have trouble with fodmaps. They’re in everything wheat except sourdough bread.

Why does this matter? In the case of celiac you can’t have a crumb. In the case of fodmap trouble you can’t have a bunch of wheat, but a trace amount won’t hurt you.

I now have found gluten not to be an issue, and was able to identify a bunch of food triggers due to them being in the fodmap family. It’s made life simpler in that I know for sure I don’t have to worry about exposure, and can have moderate fodmaps as well.

Fodmaps are hard to get a handle on. There are good apps where you can quickly look up things you eat. Before that I never managed to try fodmap elimination because it was too complicated.

Note that I am not saying you, OP, don’t have a gluten problem. But there will be many people reading your post, who have digestive discomfort and other issues but nothing life threatening. To those people I would strongly recommend a gluten test before you quit, and check fodmaps if you test negative.

I had a wide variety of digestive symptoms that are similar to some celiac symptoms, but that was not the cause. And gluten being nearly all high fodmap makes for possible confounding.

(Fodmaps are mostly in carbs, so a low carb diet can also be a fodmap reduction diet)

[irrational]

> They’re in everything wheat except sourdough bread.

Why is that? The only difference between sourdough bread and non-sourdough bread is yeast vs starter (and some people still use yeast in addition to their starter).

[Raphael_Amiard]

That's related to what FODMAP are: fermentable carbohydrates. They'll be decomposed in the fermentation process for sourdough bread.

It has been noticed by many people who think they're gluten intolerant that they digest sourdough bread much better. The likelyhood that this is linked to the changes incurred by the fermentation process is high, since, as you said, that's the only difference.

[bregma]

It's more the opposite: FODMAPs are non-fermentable carbohydrates. If they were fermentable by yeast, they would be fermented and you wouldn't be eating them. The whole point is that yeast doesn't metabolize them but your natural intestinal flora does.

Sourdough is a mixture of yeasts, lactobacter, and acidophilus in various proportions. The latter two will metabolize the FODMAPS, either while proving the bread or in your gut. One of those choices can cause discomfort and the other a delicious food product.

[maxnoe]

It's the only difference in ingredients.

But the difference is a world apart.

The best example is rye bread, which won't develop a crumb without sour dough.

Concerning the fodmaps, it is the usually longer fermentation that reduces those.

[graeme]

Note that rye sourdough is still high fodmap. Found this out early on when I realized it still caused symptoms.

True wheat sourdough is hard to find too. Most bakeries put in yeast and label it sourdough.

[OJFord]

> yeast vs starter

Commercial yeast vs. starter [naturally occurring yeast, flour, and water]

[quietbritishjim]

According to Wikipedia (which I consulted because I know nothing at all about this), starter also contains lactobacilli .

> The lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli gives it a more sour taste and improved keeping qualities.

[OJFord]

Sure, and dust, and any other spores or pollutants in the air, I didn't mean to provide a pure and complete list, I just meant that it's not some magic yeastless concoction that also happens to make bread rise. It's still yeast doing the work, it's just naturally occurring, rather than added from a packet of commercially grown and sold yeast.

[quietbritishjim]

Right, but that article claims that lactobacilli are critical to make the bread actually taste like sourdough at the end, whereas presumably dust isn't.

I did realise your main point is that it does include yeast, and I agree with that.

[OJFord]

Oh yeah, absolutely, I just meant that all (leavened) breads contain yeast, I suppose it's a defining feature; so it's not 'yeast vs. starter', it's 'yeast from a packet vs. yeast from the air'.