The problem is not bread. The problem is sad bread.

I took a walk through a gourmet grocery store yesterday, and the lumps of baked dough that lined the “artisan bread” shelves were not bread. Not any kind of bread that human beings should be putting into their bodies.

Over one hundred years ago, humans developed the technology to process wheat berries using a roller mill. Prior to this, wheat was ground between two large millstones into flour. If you wanted, you could sift out the bran. But the roller mill technology quickly caught on, and everyone started using the new and improved “white” flour.

Then, about sixty years ago, electric motor-driven mixers became commercially affordable and were quickly adopted in bakeries around the world. Prior to this, the baker would slowly fold the dough in large wooden troughs, repeatedly, over the course of many hours.

These two technological advancements gave birth to something very dark, dangerous, and tragic… Wonder Bread. I want to make clear, Wonder Bread, and all of its relatives, are not bad. They are sad. They didn’t ask to be brought into the world with so little care, so much wanton disregard of their wants and needs. They are created, every day, by people. Those people should be held responsible for their creations. Don’t blame the bread, blame the baker. Find the baker and ask them why they are making this sad bread.

And if you don’t know the baker, well, that’s probably a huge part of the problem. If you are buying your bread so far from the oven that you don’t know who the baker is, that would be a big red warning flag that the love and care your bread needs is not happening.

I’m going to be talking more about sad bread. I’m going to help you learn what it looks like, and equally important, why it is not good for your body. We’re going on a journey together. I’ll bring the bread.