Irritable Bowel Syndrome Slow Baking works against bloating and flatulence

Longer dough time makes bread more compatible
Many patients with irritable bowel have health problems when eating bread. Those affected often suffer from heavy flatulence after eating bread. But now there is good news for all irritable bowel patients. There is indeed a way to make bread more compatible. Researchers found that prolonged dough walking time can degrade difficult-to-digest sugars in bread. This process also prevents the onset of bloating.

People with an irritable bowel have problems with eating bread. Consumption often leads to severe flatulence. Scientists from the University of Hohenheim have now found in a study that a longer dough time degrades difficult to digest sugars in the bread and prevents bloating. This makes the bread more compatible with people with an irritable bowel. It makes no difference, from which grain the bread was baked. The important thing is simply the type of production. The researchers published the results of their study in the journal "ScienceDirekt".

People with an irritable bowel often get health problems and bloating when they eat bread. Scientists have now found that longer dough times make bread much easier to digest. (Image: Stasique / fotolia.com)

Traditional baked bread gets irritable bowel patients a lot better
If we make the bread dough using the traditional method and leave it for a long time, this process destroys most indigestible FODMAP sugars, the authors explain. This also works with normal wheat bread. So it's not the grain that determines the compatibility, but the way it's made, the experts add. This traditionally baked bread is much better for many irritable bowel patients.

Many people in Germany suffer from irritable bowel syndrome
By a so-called irritable bowel syndrome we understand a group of functional bowel diseases. The syndrome affects many people in Germany. Up to 50 percent of visits to the gastroenterologist are due to these intestinal diseases, the scientists explain. The researchers speculate that twelve percent of people in Germany suffer from irritable bowel syndrome. Patients often have abdominal cramps, bloating, constipation and diarrhea. The exact causes of this are still unknown. However, many sufferers observe that consuming wheat bread increases symptoms, say the authors.

What Helps with Irritable Bowel Syndrome?
For example, physicians advise people that they can alleviate the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome that occur through yoga. It is also important to follow a healthy diet. So also psyllium should help the irritable bowel syndrome. If the pain is too strong, caraway oil body pads can reduce the pain.

So-called FODMAPs cause bloating
But what exactly could trigger these complaints? So-called FODMAPs are sugar compounds that consist of up to fourteen different sugar molecules, the researchers explain. These compounds can not be sufficiently degraded in the small intestine of the affected irritable bowel patients. For this reason, FODMAPs are largely undigested in the large intestine of those affected. In the large intestine they then form large amounts of hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. This process then leads to painful flatulence, say the experts

Bread made from original cereals?
Over the years, people with an irritable bowel became more and more likely to tolerate bread made from ancient grains much better. These so-called ancient cereals include, for example, einkorn, durum, spelled and emmer. What could be the reason? Do so-called ancient cereals perhaps contain less of the so-called FODMAPs? A team of researchers from the University of Hohenheim now analyzed the FODMAP content of different cereals. The result of this study was surprising, explains Jochen Ziegler from the University of Hohenheim

Ancient crops contain only slightly fewer FODMAPs
The so-called ancient grain is by no means more compatible. The scientists found that cereals such as spelled, durum and emmer actually contain lower levels of FODMAPs. However, the differences are not large enough to relieve the discomfort of many irritable bowel patients. Amazingly, Einkorn contained even more FODMAPs than regular bread wheat, the researchers add.

Decisive for the digestibility is the walking time of the dough
The results of the levels of FODMAPs in the cereals did not clarify. Why then are breads from ancient grains better compatible? The researchers began to study the preparation of bread dough more closely. Especially the so-called walking time of the traditional production methods of baked bread interested the scientists. For this reason, they analyzed doughs with different walking times. These doughs rest either for one, two, four or even four and a half hours, the authors explain.

Longer walking times of the dough results in fewer FODMAPS in the dough
It quickly became clear in this investigation: The longer a dough is allowed to go, the less FODMAPs are left afterward. Today, most industrial bakeries bake their dough pieces after just one hour, explains senior author Reinhold Carle. At this time, however, according to the measurements of the study, most of the FODMAPs are contained in the dough. Instead, if the dough rested for four and a half hours, even the dough made from bread wheat contained only ten percent of the low molecular weight sugar, say the scientists.

Traditional preparation with advantages
The results make it clear that apparently the cereals used are not really crucial. More important seems to be the type of dough preparation. The traditional preparation of the bakery industry causes the ingredients causing the problem in the bread to be broken down to baking, explains Carle. Therefore, irritable bowel patients tolerate such traditionally baked breads better.

Advantages of slow baking
However, the so-called "slow baking" has even more advantages. The slower preparation increases the quality of the bread. The contained flavors of such breads simply unfold better, say the authors. In addition, a longer walking time causes the dough to release more zinc and iron in a bioerodible form. This fact is another advantage of traditionally made breads. These positive health benefits also help people without an irritable bowel syndrome, the experts add. (As)