Laura Schoenfeld: If somebody is celiac or they have antibodies against gluten, I do not recommend them eating sourdough bread. I don’t care if somebody says that it’s “gluten-free.” If it contains wheat or if it ever contained gluten in the first place, do not have your patients try that. That’s a really bad idea.
Now, if you have somebody who is sensitive to gluten but doesn’t necessarily have really bad reactions to it and doesn’t have any antibodies against it, and they’re not having issues with FODMAPs, then maybe they want to try it. I’ll even use myself as an example here. I’ve gotten Cyrex testing done, and I do not have any antibodies against gluten or any of the wheat proteins, but that said, I don’t really feel very good when I eat wheat or pasta or lots of gluten-containing products, and I definitely get symptoms from gluten. My skin will break out, or I’ll get a little bit of water retention or something. Nothing crazy, but just enough that I know that eating lots of gluten-containing products really doesn’t fit well for me. And for sourdough, I’ve had sourdough bread before. Sometimes that bothers me, sometimes it doesn’t.
So again, this is another situation where if the person doesn’t have any major issues with gluten and it’s just kind of like gluten, in general, doesn’t seem to work super well for them when they eat it in excess, then sourdough bread could be a really good option. That would be something worth trying. If they feel bad when they eat it, then, again, it’s just more evidence that they shouldn’t be eating it. If they have some sourdough bread and they feel fine, honestly, my question is, what’s the downside of them having a little sourdough bread here and there? Certainly mental health is just as important as digestive and physical health, so if they like to have a little bread and it doesn’t bother them and they aren’t having an immune response to bread or gluten, then I’d say I’m fine with somebody enjoying some sourdough bread.