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Historian explains why modern bread sucks [1]

['Séamus Bellamy']

Date: 2026-04-21  

Unless you're making it yourself or buying it from a local bakery, indulging in a loaf of the stuff is asking for trouble. The stuff you pick up at the grocery store is often loaded with chemical preservatives, which can make you feel hella bloated and spike your blood sugar levels. How in the hell did prisoners survive on crap food like this for years at a time? Why was bread, when it's a pain in the ass to cook, so often a part of the rations given to soldiers over the centuries?

Because it wasn't always crap.

In this video from Medieval Way, you'll find out where our breadmaking habits went astray and a once vital source of fuel for our bodies became little more than a delivery system for pastrami. The channel traces the shift to industrial breadmaking in the 20th century, when the Chorleywood process — developed in Britain in 1961 — let manufacturers churn out soft, shelf-stable loaves in a fraction of the time, at the cost of fermentation, flavor, and nutritional value. Turns out the slow rise matters.

Previously:

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