White bread typically refers tobreads made fromwheat flour from which thebran and thegerm layers have been removed from the wholewheatberry as part of the flour grinding ormilling process, producing a light-colored flour.[2]
White bread contains half of themagnesium found inwhole-wheat bread, and it is generally considered to be less nutritionally dense.
The milling process can give white flour a longershelf life by removing the natural oils from the whole grain. Removing the oil allows products made with the flour, like white bread, to be stored for longer periods of time avoiding potentialrancidity.
Ancient Egyptian aristocracy had access to white bread. In this image bread is depicted in Egypt in about 2,500 BC.
Bread made with grass grains goes back to the pre-agricultureNatufi proto-civilization 12,000 years ago.[3] But only wheat can feasibly be sifted to produce pure white starch, a technique that goes back to at leastancient Egypt.[4] Because wheat was the most expensive grain to grow, and the process to sift it labor-intensive, white flour was generally limited to special occasions and the wealthy, until the mid-19th century. Then industrial processes eliminated the labor cost, allowing prices to fall until it was accessible to the middle class.[5]
In the US,corn meal was the standard grain for bread until closing in on the 20th century, while in Europe it was other grains.
But once accessible, white bread became very popular in industrialized countries for a number of reasons:
It was easier to see as pure and clean, at a time when some foods could be poorly made and adulterated.
The lack of both coarseness and complexflavor profile made it a popular medium for the delivery of flavorfulcondiments.
It is more easily chewed and digested. This allows it to be a source of morecalories. It also does make somemicronutrients more digestible, some studies finding that the added nutrition in whole grains tends to pass through the body unabsorbed.[6] For some body types and diets, white flour may have been a nutritional benefit.[7]
Once it could be easily produced, it went from the most expensive to among the cheapest kinds of flour.
It can last longer. The wheat oil in whole grain breads can go rancid over time, spoiling its flavor.
However, there was a backlash from the popularity of white flour, giving rise to whole grain alternatives popular to this day, such asgraham crackers andcorn flakes, which (in their original whole grain form) have more fiber andmicronutrients. Eventually, the transformation of white bread from an elite to a common foodstuff became symbolic of the success of industrialization and capitalism in general, especially paired with the advent of machinesliced bread in the 1920s.[citation needed]
Homemade white bread
In the United States, consumers sometimes refer to white bread as "sandwich bread" or "sandwich loaf".[8] It is often perceived as an unhealthy, bland, and unsophisticated menu item.[9][10][11]
Japanese milk bread, a type of soft white bread, is popular in Asia, particularly in Japan, and hasartisan status there.[12][13] Bread was not a traditional food in Japan, but it came into culinary use there after the American response to post-World War II Japaneserice shortages includedrelief shipments ofwheat.[14] The style of bread became popular outside Asia in the 2020s.[15][16][17]
While a bran- and wheatgerm-discarding milling process can help improve white flour's shelf life, it does remove nutrients like somedietary fiber,iron,B vitamins,micronutrients[18] andessential fatty acids. The US government has mandated since 1941fortification of white flour-based foods with some of the nutrients lost in milling, likethiamin,riboflavin,niacin, and iron. This mandate came about in response to the vastnutrient deficiencies seen in US military recruits at the start ofWorld War II.[19] This fortification led to nearly universal eradication of deficiency diseases in the US, such aspellagra andberiberi (deficiencies of niacin and thiamine, respectively) and white bread continues to contain these added vitamins to this day.[20]
Folic acid is another nutrient that some governments have mandated is added to enriched grains like white bread. In the US andCanada, these grains have been fortified with mandatory levels of folic acid since 1998 because of its important role in preventingbirth defects. Since fortification began, the rate ofneural tube defects has decreased by approximately one-third in the US.[21][22][23] Folic acid supplementation was mandated in the UK in September 2021, joining more than 80 countries in the world with thispublic health measure.[24]
^American Dietetic Association (2005). "Position of the American Dietetic Association: Fortification and Nutritional Supplements".Journal of the American Dietetic Association.105 (8):1300–1311.doi:10.1016/j.jada.2005.06.009.PMID16182650.
