THE SOURDOUGH SCHOOL AND ATLAS BIOMED PARTNERSHIP FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / PRURGENT
Is sourdough bread good for your gut? UK leaders in sourdough and gut microbial testing are finally addressing this burning question. Vanessa Kimbell, founder of the Sourdough School, and Atlas Biomed, a UK-based personalised health company, are partnering to provide a completely new approach to understanding the interaction between bread fermentation and gut health and mood.
This partnership combines cutting-edge genetic sequencing of the human gut microbiome with traditional baking techniques to finally provide answers on whether bread, and if so what bread, is good or bad for you. It builds on extensive scientific research by the Atlas Biomed team and a lifetime of experience by the author of The Sourdough School – the ground-breaking guide to gut-friendly bread, and award-winning book Food for Thought published by Kyle Books.
Together, Vanessa and Atlas Biomed hope to establish the foundations of science-backed answers, solutions and recipes for people at home. It comes at amid a rising tide of authors claiming to have found the magic bullet to restore gut health in a nascent field of research. This research on bread and the effects of fermentation is about gathering evidence, not just conjecture.
The Atlas Biomed Microbiome Test looks at important features of the gut microbiome, like microbial diversity, ability to break down dietary fibre, potential to produce vitamins and short-chain fatty acids like butyrate that have anti-inflammatory properties. It will also look at variations in the composition of gut microbes when people switch to eating sourdough bread.
“Over the last few years, the gut microbiome and its role in supporting digestion and our mental and physical health has been one of the main areas of my research. Partnership with an extraordinary testing company Atlas Biomed will take our knowledge and understanding of the fermentation of bread and digestion to the next level”, says Vanessa Kimbell, founder of the Sourdough School.
Her interest is echoed by Sergey Musienko, co-founder and CEO of Atlas Biomed: “Taking the confusion out of food is the next big step to lessening the burden of disease. We think this research is essential, given that 20% of the calories that humans consume are wheat derived, that is 1 in 5 calories in our diets according to the UN. The lion’s share of bread consumed is industrially produced fast process bread using the Chorleywood bread making system. We want to challenge the status quo and support like-minded advocates who put wellness, digestive health and foods that encourage microbial diversity and abundance of beneficial bacteria in our gut back on our tables, where it should be!” | 
