Are you on vegetarian, macrobiotic, vegan, semi-vegetarian, white-meat-only, meat-and-

potato or any of the scores of other popular or fad diets? Whatever your choice, chances are you

serve bread at least once daily—bread is one of our prime, indispensable, vital staple foods. Even

prisoners in dungeons, if given no other food, are allowed bread and water. Bread and water can

sustain life for quite a while.

Virtually every food on today's American and Canadian menu has changed over time, some

only slightly and others drastically. Everything has been "improved," especially since the 1970s.

One food, however, hasn't changed a bit—bread is still the staff of life. Bakeries 50, 100 and 200

years ago baked virtually the same breads and other bread products that they do today. In fact, the

dozens of different breads in the bakeries of the Roman Empire 2000 years ago could be on the

shelves of today's bakeries—they would be virtually identical breads, similar in shapes and flavor.

The only noticeable difference in the two bakeries would be the shiny glass display cases and the

computerized cash register. And, to a large extent, the attitude of the bakery assistants.

History

Leavened bread goes far back into human history. Bread's main ingredients, flour, water,

salt and yeast were easy to obtain. As soon as humans discovered how to grind the seeds of the

common wheat grass into flour and combine that flour with water to make a dough, the next step,

leavening the dough, was only a short step. Someone left the moist dough in a clay pot for a few

days and yeast from the air mysteriously leavened it. People accepted the peculiar rise of dough but

could not explain it for several millennia until the 1800s.

References to bread appeared several thousand years before the Jews and Christians started

baking their own. A 5000-year old piece of bread archeologists found in an Egyptian tomb sits in

the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Although it is quite stale by now, it is still clearly

recognizable as bread.

But bread has always been more than just food. "Breaking bread" with someone is not only

sharing a meal, it is also a form of diplomacy. Traditionally, people did not cut bread but broke it to

maintain its sacredness. Cutting with a steel blade was considered a barbaric, cruel act, unsuitable

for dividing such highly-esteemed food as bread. Breaking of the bread by hand is still a ceremonial

tradition for many, including the Jewish Friday-night welcoming of the Sabbath.

To show their respect, German bakers in the old days never turned their backs toward their

ovens. Spanish bakers and religious Jews even now kiss a piece of bread that falls on the ground to

show their reverence and high esteem. And remember that the highest respect in Christian-Judaic

place, Bethlehem means House of Bread. Bread has always been a symbol for life and to this day it

is prominent in our daily meals, even though it lost its sacred status. That is not surprising. It is hard

to give a blessed status to the soft, sliced, preservative and chemical-filled cheap spongy stuff in a

plastic bag that fills most of the supermarket bread shelves.

Nutritious and good tasting, you can eat this inexpensive staple with any other type of food

at any time of the day, or it can make a meal by itself. During harsh times brought on by poor

economic conditions, drought or crop failure, bread made from cultivated crops was the first staple

that truly relieved hunger and starvation. No wonder it was a sacred symbol.

Some form of bread adorns every holiday, festive and ceremonial table in all Western and

many Eastern cuisines. The European tradition calls for rich sweetened yeast breads, particularly

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