Universe began with bread

History and archeology tells us that wheat has appeared in different parts of the world. The famous quote of  Pythagoras, the famous mathematician who lived on the island of Sysam right across from us.

YESAM - Culinary Arts Center hosted a seminar called “Breads of Anatolia Throughout History” presented by Nedim Atilla, a journalist and food history researcher.  Mr. Atilla started his presentation with the following comments:

“In 18th and 19th century, the travelers who travelled to Istanbul and Anatolia, spoke highly of the mysteries of the east and introduced Turks as the race that consumes the most amount of bread”.

Mr. Atilla continued, “Wheat first appeared in the plateau of the ‘fertile crescent.’ I would not be surprised if I heard news stating the oldest wheat was found in Gobeklitepe, Urfa. Homer mentioned bread in his two most famous epics: in the Iliad, ‘the women kneaded the dough made out of white flour, and made food for the people during harvest’, and in the Odyssey he mentioned the difference between the folks that consumed bread and the barbarians who ate lotus leaves”.

 Mr. Atilla continued his presentation by discussing how the world is now consuming rye bread more than the other types of grains. “It is a historical fact that Turks have always preferred wheat and oat to rye. It is a quite recent discovery for us to start eating oats, rather than only using them as animal feed.  Rye was considered as the food of the poor for centuries. In the books I have read in recent years and in scientific meetings I have attended, rye was often referred to as similar to olive oil in its importance. The glycemic index of rye bread is low; therefore the digestion process is very slow. The sugar gets dissolved into the blood very slowly, preventing insulin levels from rising rapidly. Rye also contains all the amino acids needed by human body, making its nutritious value very high.

15 April 2013

Lecture video is in Turkish.