The air section of “Cooked” covered bread baking. I love bread, and used to love making it, but when I began having what appeared to be immune system reactions to wheat, I thought my days of eating real bread were over.

But then Michael Pollan’s passage discussed sourdough fermentation. Introducing fermentation changes the characteristics of the wheat in the bread. I won’t go into detail. He, of course, did tons of research and explains it thoroughly in the book. Read it.

Again, I don’t have celiac, so using myself as a human guinea pig wasn’t that risky. While I might experience joint pain and inflammation, I most likely wasn’t going to do damage to my gut. I really wanted to find out how sourdough would react with my body, and the easiest way to do that was to indulge in some fluffy, baked goodness.

Over the next three weeks, I ate sourdough and didn’t have any reaction. I could eat a sandwich and not only enjoy the flavor, I would be pain-free while it was digesting! It’s a wonderful discovery, and it’s all thanks to “Cooked.”

I plan on baking my own sourdough bread soon — you know, when the 100 degree heat is at an end. While Pollan “captured” his wild yeasts to create his starter, I’m going to begin with a packaged version, something that I can regulate a bit more at the start. Until I walk you through the process of creating a complex loaf of sourdough bread (it’s really not that difficult), I thought it would be nice to at least share my recent experiences with all of you. Who knows? Maybe sourdough will be an option for you, too.