The bread sounds delicious but there are a few things to consider before most Celiacs would try it out. I did a quick search for sourdough at Celiac.com, lots of messages came up and I looked at about the first 20 and the only sourdough breads people ate were gluten free.


Some people use Celiac Disease as a general term for all people sensitive to gluten. Medical researchers divide gluten sensitivity into catagories - wheat or grain allergy, autoimmune Celiac Sprue, non-Celiac Sprue. I would need to know whether the person who could tolerate the sourdough bread had CD or one of the other gluten intolerances. I have not read of anyone who has diagnosed autoimmune celiac disease who could tolerate gluten. Some people have more than one of the following problems.

Wheat/grain allergy - the reaction is fairly rapid, before 3 hours and usually starts with stomach irritation.

Celiac Sprue - The reaction is delayed for several hours as it takes that long for the gluten to be broken down and trigger the production of autoantibodies. The reaction causes some pain and cramping in the small intestine, usually in the lower abdomen. If the person has been gf for a long period it may take much longer for the antibodies to be produced and it may take several 'doses ' of gluten foods to have a reaction. Some Celiacs don't have an intestinal reaction but develop other symptoms - Dermatitis herpetaformis, neurological problems. There are 'silent' Celiacs who have no symptoms but do have intestinal damage. 14 different genes have been identified as being involved in CD and the presence or absence of these genes influences liklihood of developing CD and the severity of the problems.

non-Celiac Sprue or Leaky Gut Syndrome - Gluten and gluten-like proteins cause the small intestine to become more permeable so food antigens are able to enter the body. The person develops allergies. This is not an autoimmune disease. I have read of a few people who wrote that they have been cured of this problem.

The enzymes that digest gluten cut the protein apart at specific places so the amino acid fragments have the proper sequence of amino acids to start the autoimmune series of reactions. I have read that researchers are searching for an enzyme which would cut the proteins differently so that the amino acid sequences produced wouldn't start the autoimmune process. I don't know if it is possible for the Russian sourdough process to have an enzyme which would cut the protein in different places.