The Honest Truth: How bread became the nation’s favourite food

Bread is a staple in almost every household – but how much do we actually know about it?

Chris Young has coordinates the Real Bread Campaign, which aims to make the foodstuff even better and uses his loaf to tell Tracey Bryce the Honest Truth about the staff of life…

Tell us about bread… why does the nation love it so much?

Bread is a staple food in almost every culinary culture because it’s delicious and can make an affordable meal almost on its own.

Industrial loaf products are popular mainly because they’re cheap to buy (though might incur hidden costs), widely available and are comfortingly familiar because so many of us were brought up on them.

What is Real Bread?

We define Real Bread as made without chemical raising agents, so-called processing aids or any other additives. This simple and universally-inclusive definition encompasses every type of Real Bread made and enjoyed by people of every age, nationality, colour, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnic heritage, differing ability, neurological status, religion and economic background, who speak every language worldwide.

It is possible to make Real Bread as sliced, white sandwich loaf, but industrial loaf fabricators usually choose to throw in a load of additives instead.

Who invented bread and when?

It’s likely that people in a number of different places independently stumbled on the idea of crushing wild or cultivated grains (such as maize, millet or cereals), mixing that meal or pulp with water to form a dough, which they then shaped into cakes or flatbreads and baked, grilled or roasted.

For a long time, this was thought to have happened 10-12,000 years ago, but in 2004 archaeologists in Israel dated barley meal in a grinding stone to 22,00 years ago and in 2018 charred flatbread crumbs dating back around 14,000 years were found in Jordan.

The general consensus is that dough was first leavened (made to rise, either with a sourdough starter or yeast from beer barm) in and around Ancient Egypt, though nobody can agree when within that large time period it actually happened.

Where was wheat first farmed?

The first species of wheat to be cultivated was what is now known as Triticum monococcum or einkorn.

This started happening around 10,000 years ago in what is often called The Fertile Crescent, which curves from modern-day Egypt, through Syria, southern Turkey, Iraq and into Iran. Most bread in the UK is now made from common or modern wheat (Triticum aestivum).

How did it get its name?

Etymologists can’t all agree. Some believe it comes from a Germanic root meaning something like bubble, referring to the dough rising, while others say the meaning was a piece or morsel of food.

Before around 1200 BC, the more common name was the Old English hlaf, which shares its origins with Polish chleb, Arabic khobz and Finnish leipä.

Any health benefits?

Not all loaves are created equal, but all things sold as bread are packed with carbs and protein. Products made with wholemeal and other less-refined flours are a good source of fibre as well. Studies have found that higher levels of the vitamins and minerals naturally present in grains remain in stoneground flour than roller-milled flours of similar extraction rate.

All wheat flour in the UK, except wholemeal, has minerals and synthetic vitamins added, though questions hang over whether all are beneficial.

There’s a growing body of evidence that suggests there might be a range of health and nutritional benefits of making bread by the sourdough process.

We keep calling for more research to be funded but the government won’t support this. The necessary changes brought about by the lengthy lactic acid bacterial fermentation can’t occur to the same extent if the process is sped by the use of other rising agents, or at all if a live starter culture isn’t used.

realbreadcampaign.org