February 14, 2002 at 12:00 am #31348
Liam22913
Participant
I can’t believe I know this answer. The term ‘white bread’ stems from the Middle Ages. The upper class, such as tavern owners and merchants, were the only ones able to afford the flour needed to make white bread, and even that was only occasionally. Later, during renaissance times, white bread was more prevalent due to milling technology, but still referred to the upper class. When people started moving to the new world they used it to refer to the elite, which were white, Anglo-Saxon. Jews ate unleven bread and grain breads but whites ate white bread from habit and status. As the cost declined the middle class was the main market for this type of bread. Hence, the term ‘white bread’ refers to middle-class, white.