The type of bread and its manufacture have an impact on the ease of digestion. For people sensitive to gluten (but not intolerant), this can make a big difference… Explanations!
- Gluten is the protein found in cereals.
- In adults, gluten intolerance is manifested by digestive symptoms such as diarrhea or constipation.
700,000 people in France suffer from celiac disease, or gluten intolerance, according to data from the French National Society of Gastroenterology. These figures do not take into account people hypersensitive to gluten who can consume it but in limited quantities. An Inrae research team looked at this part of the population. In a survey started in 2018, they found that these people claimed to be able to consume artisanal products without causing symptoms. Recently, researchers published the conclusions of a survey on the qualities of different breads, whether artisanal or industrial, in Tea Conversation.
Sensitivity to gluten: more digestible peasant breads
“Two types of bread were compared: ‘peasant’ bread (variety of wheat grown in AB organic farming, ground on stone millstones, with sourdough, manual kneading and long fermentation) and ‘industrial’ bread (variety of wheat recommended by ANMF (National Association of French Milling), milling on cylinders, commercial yeast, mechanical kneading and short fermentation)”they point out.
They were interested in the ability of proteins to become soluble using two techniques: a detergent (SDS) and an association detergent – disulfide bond reducer. “At comparable protein content, the proteins extracted with SDS are twice as numerous in ‘peasant’ bread (i.e. 37% of total proteins) than in ‘industrial’ bread (17%)”they observe.
They then sought to understand the origin of this difference. According to their conclusions, it is not the variety of cereals used that has the greatest impact but the transformation process, and in particular the ferment used. “17% protein extracted by SDS from breads with yeast, 31% with sourdough”, they conclude. The type of kneading (manual or mechanical), the type of fermentation (long or direct) and the method of cooking (wood oven or electric oven) also have consequences.
Pasta: what choice for people hypersensitive to gluten?
The study also looked at pasta. “Artisanal pasta or pasta produced by farmers are distinguished from industrial ones by the use of durum wheat varieties, cultivated in the past (for example, the Bidi 17 variety), or selected in a participatory manner with farmers (case of the LA1823 variety), cultivated in organic farming, whose grains are ground on stone millstones to give products of finer grain size than those of semolina used in industry”, they observe. The production differs between the two types of pasta on two levels: extrusion and drying. Here again, the proteins in industrial pasta are more difficult to dissolve.
Breads, pasta: what choices for people hypersensitive to gluten?
“We absolutely do not claim to provide recommendations here for people declared to be hypersensitive to gluten”, warn the authors. But they note that the differences in feeling declared by these people are found during the extraction of the proteins. Thus, in case of increased sensitivity to gluten, it may be interesting to favor sourdough breads, with long fermentations and manual kneading, and doughs from “stone-ground flour or semolina, kneaded, extruded and gently dried”.
