The Truth About Gluten-Free Sourdough: A Gut-Healing Staple

The Truth About Gluten-Free Sourdough: A Gut-Healing Staple (Even If You Think Gluten Isn’t a Problem)

By Mari Handley

Certified Functional Nutrition Practitioner & RBTI Specialist

🌾 “Is Gluten Really That Bad?”

It’s one of the most common questions I get as a Functional Nutritionist:
“What if I don’t have gluten intolerance—can I still eat regular bread?”

Here’s the thing: you don’t have to have celiac disease or a gluten allergy to be negatively affected by gluten.

Modern wheat is a far cry from what our ancestors used. It's been hybridized, sprayed, processed, and often stripped of natural enzymes. This makes it harder to digest and more inflammatory—even for people who don’t test positive for intolerance.

In many of my clients' RBTI tests, I see hidden signs of gut stress, poor sugar handling, liver congestion, and mineral depletion… long before they ever feel a major symptom. Gluten is often one of the silent contributors.

🦠 What Gluten Can Do to Your Gut

Here’s what’s really happening when your body isn’t happy with gluten:

Disruption of gut lining: Gluten can increase gut permeability (aka "leaky gut"), even in non-celiac individuals. This allows toxins, undigested food particles, and pathogens to enter the bloodstream and trigger inflammation.
Bacterial imbalance: A stressed gut often loses its balance of good bacteria. Gluten can feed the wrong microbes, especially when consumed with high-sugar, low-fiber diets.
Immune system confusion: Chronic exposure to poorly digested gluten can keep your immune system in “attack mode,” which may show up as fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, mood swings, or skin issues.

🍞 Why Gluten-Free Sourdough Is Different

Not all bread is created equal.

Gluten-free sourdough, when properly fermented, becomes something different entirely:

✅ The fermentation process pre-digests complex carbs, making them easier on your blood sugar
✅ It feeds the good gut bacteria, similar to fermented veggies and kefir
✅ It lowers phytic acid, making nutrients in the bread more absorbable
✅ And it often tastes better than store-bought gluten-free options!

When you create your own sourdough at home, especially with clean, gluten-free flours like sorghum, brown rice, or millet, you gain control over your gut health — one loaf at a time.

🧪 As a Functional Nutritionist & RBTI Specialist…

I see how food affects people on a cellular and energetic level. When your internal terrain is inflamed or out of balance, it shows up in so many ways:

Sluggish digestion
Cravings and blood sugar crashes
Mood instability or anxiety
Hormone imbalance
Constant fatigue

Building a healthy gut is not just about removing gluten.
It’s about adding the right kinds of nourishment back in.

🌿 How to Start Healing Your Gut Naturally

Eat fermented foods regularly (like sourdough, sauerkraut, or coconut kefir)
Reduce refined carbs and sugars that feed yeast and bad bacteria
Support your liver and kidneys, which work hand-in-hand with your digestive system
Drink mineral-rich water to support hydration and digestion (a pinch of sea salt is great for this)
Get your terrain tested with tools like RBTI — it shows patterns that bloodwork often misses
Learn how to prepare your food with intention

🥖 Want to Learn Gluten-Free Sourdough with Me?

If you're ready to reconnect with your gut, your food, and your health — I’d love to invite you to one of my upcoming sourdough classes.

We don’t just bake.
We learn how to care for our bodies.

You’ll leave with:

A take-home starter ($20 value)
Access to my sourdough vault (recipes + walk-throughs $47 value)
Gut health and detox education (free access to the detox vault - $47 value)
The confidence to begin healing — one intentional meal at a time
A Free Visera Remote Scan with Personalized results ($67 value)

📅 Class Dates:
➡️ June 8 – Sunday at 4 PM
➡️ June 9 – Monday at Noon

Let this be the beginning of food becoming your friend again. 💛
If you feel like your body’s been asking for something different — this might be it.

There are 100,000 chemicals on the market today. The toxic Substance Control Act of 1976 grandfathered them in. What does that mean to you? Simply put: these chemicals have not had any safety testing, and we know very little information about their side effects. Since 1940's prostate cancer is up 200%, Thyroid cancer up 155%, Brain cancer up 70%. What happens when your body is chemically overloaded? It may not be cancer, but we can feel in ways like: lethargy, inability to focus, sleep trouble, chronic inflammation, unexplained pain, skin issues, adult acne, hot flashes, stress, anxiety, and fear.

If you are tired of living in a chemically overloaded world, click the link below and learn how easy it is to change out chemicals for toxic-free living.

Learn More Now