Breads

Carbohydrates foods such as Breads are the body's main source of energy. Eating breads with proteins is a healthy eating habit.

Breads are staple food of European, Middle Eastern and Indian cultures, made by baking, steaming or frying dough. Bread consists of flour and water, a little salt and leavening agent such as yeast. Bread may also contain some amounts of sugar, spices, fruit (such as raisins, pumpkin or bananas), vegetables (like onion or zucchini), nuts, or seeds (such as caraway, sesame or poppy seeds).

There are a wide variety of breads, with preferences differing from region to region. The inner soft portion of breads is called the crumb. The outer hard portion part of the bread is called crust. Bread is one of world's oldest prepared foods dating to the Neolithic era. Descendants of early breads are still commonly made from various grains worldwide, including the Mexican tortilla, North American johnnycake, Middle Eastern Pita bread (Kmaj in Arabic and Pitot in Hebrew) and Indian chapatis, rotis and naans. Breads may be leavened or unleavened. A major advance that took place in 1961 was the development of the Chorleywood Bread Process using the intense mechanical working of dough to dramatically reduce fermentation period and the time taken to make a loaf. This process is now widely used around the world and also, domestic breadmakers are becoming popular.