Help~ Grinding then soaking grains, or make sourdough...will the nutrients be gone before we eat...

[CookiePie]

Ok I need to read NT I know, I'm getting it soon! But in the meantime can any one help? I'm just getting into both grinding & soaking grains. Now that I've done it I'm considering doing sourdough for our everyday bread. I believe it will streamline the whole process and make it easier & more doable in the end.

I've read that the nutrients in the ground grains is dramatically reduced in 24 hours. So if I grind, then make my own sourdough starter, which takes takes a week, then I can add more flour and water and put it in the loaf pans & let it soak/raise for 12 hours. Will there be nutrients lost by the time it is eaten? I understand that in order to get rid of the phytic acid it should soak for 12 hours. How do I maintain as much of the nutrients as possible but still get rid of the phytic acid?

How about when it sits in the bread drawer how long can it sit, if once the grains are ground then have 24 hours how am I capturing that small window?

Also can I bake once a month & store bread in the freezer without losing nutrients. Am I over thinking this whole thing or what?

If anyone can give some advice or explanation I'd love it!!!

[ursusarctos]

Well I don't have a scientific answer for you, but I wouldn't worry about it. People have been fermenting their bread for millennia. I think the increased digestibility of the fermented grain totally outweighs any small nutrient loss caused by waiting more than 24 hours to eat it.

Also, I was under the impression that once bread is baked it's "set" - the same nutrient loss does not occur with baked bread as with freshly ground grain. I could be wrong though.

[CookiePie]

Thanks

[AllieFaye]

Meredith McCarty has some research (somewhere on the site or in the books, I don't readily recall) that naturally-leavened sourdough peaks in nutrition between 7-10 days after baking. Bread made with commercial yeast is either covered with mold, or too stale to eat by that point.

[NoTiGG]

I think that nutrient loss would only occur if freshly ground flour was just left out.

Once you involve a sourdough starter... the bacteria and yeasts actually ferment it. They go for the nutrients right away before they start degrading... and leave behind their residue and it keeps going in a cycle

I am just guessing though

[carmel23]

I've read studies where leaven bread (especially sourdough) makes the nutrients more readily available for absorption...