Everyone is going keto.

Yeah. I’ve tried it. Unfortunately, the diet makes me feel terribly ill—also vaguely murderous. But it’s so hard to lose weight, it’s tempting to go keto and hope for the best. And maybe get a prescription for a mood stabilizer so you feel less stabby.

OR maybe we need to stop looking forward to the new hot diet and maybe look back to what our ancestors ate. I’m not saying go back to full caveman—we’re not that physically active in just trying to stay alive—but back.

As I’ve helped customers in the store, many have told me they can actually eat our sourdough bread without gaining weight. I became intrigued and started some research.

Of course, not eating processed food makes a huge difference. The more processed something is, the faster it zips through your body—raising your blood sugar and making you want to eat more, sooner. Since we tend to live on processed foods in our society, this is a problem—but one you’re likely aware of and don’t need more info from me.

But guess what, there’s more! Prepare to be traumatized:  Google cows, weight, and yeast.

Or I’ll just tell you. Ranchers feed cows brewers yeast to increase the milk supply and to increase weight gain. Yes, they use yeast to make their cattle fat.

And when society started using baker’s yeast in loaves of bread, they were delighted with how fast we could whip out a loaf in one afternoon. The traditional long-fermented sourdough became much rarer.

And we got fat.

So putting those two together, who’s the cow in this scenario?

We are. 

We’re the cows.

It’s a good thing sourdough bread is so tasty.

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Michelle Hubbard is a graduate of Brigham Young University with an English degree and an editing minor. She won Leading Edge’s “Best First Chapter” award and later joined the publication as a slush reader and editor. After attending the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference in Sandy, Utah, she became a volunteer and this June will be her ninth year as an assistant. She is also a writing officer for Misha Collin’s charity Random Acts. A draft of her middle-grade novel, Oscar and the Ghosts of Paris, placed second with the Utah Arts Council. She lives in Pleasant Grove with her husband, sister, two children, and far too many pets