Two entries this week, because we couldn’t decide which one to run. Back on September 9, we wrote about the growing body of evidence that fermented grain products may offer special health benefits. Now there’s an interesting new study that backs up this same hypothesis.

Nutrition and food scientists at the University of Maryland, led by Professor Liangli Yu, studied the antioxidant activity in pizza doughs fermented for different periods and cooked at different temperatures. They found that dough left to ferment for 48 hours had a 130 percent rise in a major wheat antioxidant – and that cooking the pizza for just 7 minutes at 288°C (550° F) resulted in a pie that had the highest oxygen radical absorbing and scavenging capacities.

Eeeeuuuu. Fermented pizza dough? It sounds rather unappetizing, but in fact most bread has been fermented since the dawn of mankind. Before we all had access to quick yeast in a little paper packet, bakers mixed flour with water, then waited for natural yeasts to waft through the air and land in the “sponge.” Think sourdough bread, not fermented dough, and you’ll realize this is a good thing taste-wise as well as nutritionally. Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2009. DOI: 10.1021/jf802083x (Cindy)