First of all, furrbrain, the posts that you are responding to are over a year old so it is possible that the folks you are responding to are no longer paying attention to this forum.
But if Shazzie was or is still here I would recommend that s/he try contacting
Lorna Sass for the baking soda alternative, first.
Recipes from an Ecological Kitchen is 16 years old and Lorna might have learned a few things since she wrote that book.
Many years ago when I was living in Southern California where it hot and dry I found myself having a strong attraction to the mesoAmerican foods made with masa and during the peak of the summer attracted to masa made with tequesquite which is a natural alkaline form of bicarbonate of soda that lightens the masa causing it to have a more spongy texture.
A cook at the Los Angeles East West Center for Macrobiotics run by Roy Steevensz back in the early 1980s made a corn bread using light colored miso as the leavener so it might be a good alternative to baking soda.
Rebecca Wood in her
The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Resource for Healthy Eating suggests making a natural baking powder using cream of tartar, baking soda, and arrowroot.
She says that "when baking powder is mixed into a batter, carbon dioxide gas is released from sodium (baking soda in our recipe) by the action of a acid or an acid salt (here cream of tarter, the natural residue that occurs in juiced grapes). A moisture absorber such as arrowroot inhibits a premature reaction."
Since arrowroot is more yin than kuzu, I wonder how kuzu would work in place of arrowroot?
Thank you, very much.
Bruce Paine