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Bread is a staple, but not all breads are born equal. From time immemorial people have been differentiating between the refined and the ordinary.

Rye has been widely cultivated in Central and Eastern Europe since the Middle Ages and has been the main bread cereal in Tirol for centuries. Rye is a robust, hearty grain that produces the robust, heart and dark country breads. Rye was therefore considered “male”. Wheat, which produces a much lighter and whiter flour, was mainly used for cooking: you find wheat flour in mueslis and mushes, in dumplings and crullers, sweet and savory “noodles” and much more. And since these foods are soft, they were regarded as “womanish”. The idea to bake hearty bread from wimpy wheat flour seemed simply absurd to the Tirolean mountain farmer. Unless you were ill and/or recovering.

The fact that middle-class people preferred the white and therefore more “elegant” bread made them all the more suspicious. He who eats wheat bread, so the general opinion in the countryside, doesn’t work: not just because he is too lazy, but also because he is too weak. A common word used to insult somebody was “wheaty”: spoiled, effeminate, useless. And all urbanites were “wheaties”.

Although the mountain farmers might have (literally) looked down on the wheat bread eaters, they were not fully consistent in their disregard for white bread. White bread was very well known among the rural population albeit not as staple but as festive bread for special occasions. Wheat dough was used to make the traditional shaped Easter breads (resembling lambs, bunnies, etc.) and as gift breads on All Saints Day (in the shape of horses, chicken, etc.). But obviously these shaped breads were not regarded as “real” breads as these breads stood in stark contrast with the maxim that you should “not play with food”.

Even though all this may sound rather bizarre, the old mountain farmers weren’t all wrong in their preference for dark bread. Today we know that wole grain bread has more fiber and nutrients than white bread, and is therefore a lot healthier. Doctors recommend that dark bread should be part of every healthy, balanced diet. White bread is nutrition less. Even fortifying it with vitamins can't replace half of the nourishment that is lost through the bleaching and sifting process that is used on the flour which white bread is make out of.
White bread is best enjoyed on special occasions only. Such as holidays, for instance.

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