Bread-dodging Britons should be more European about their diet

If the British public and bread were in a relationship, now would be a good time for some couples therapy.

In the past decade, attitudes towards bread have shifted. According to Mintel, 8 per cent of British adults now avoid gluten in their diet as part of a “healthy lifestyle”, rather than due to having a diagnosed digestive condition such as coeliac disease, a wheat allergy or gluten intolerance.

Maybe they’re onto something. Recent studies show that processed bread stuffed with additives has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death. Nutritionists also argue that bread can contribute to weight gain, and is less nutrient-dense and filling compared with other carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes or brown rice.

But then again, maybe they aren’t. The UK’s life expectancy is currently 81.3 years, whereas European countries that haven’t adopted the gluten-free diet are living longer – Spain’s is 83.7, France’s is 83.3, Greece’s is 81.9 and Italy’s is 83.7, according to 2023 figures.

Not only have these countries swerved the gluten-free dietary movement, but bread retains a central part of everyday life in all of these countries, according to our destination experts. Those in France, Spain, Italy and Greece offer some perspective:

France

‘Bread is a seen as a source of pleasure, not a sub-branch of medical science’

Anthony Peregrine

I don’t feel that the French are quite as worried about the killer threat posed by bread as the British are. In general, they still see food as a source of sustenance and pleasure rather than as a sub-branch of medical science.

Figures differ, but it seems that the French eat around 30 million baguettes a day, bought from supermarkets and (mainly) from the 32,000 retail bakeries, or “boulangeries”.

For comparison, it’s said that the average French person eats a little over 52kg (115lb) of bread a year. The British figure is 37kg. The fact that, in 2022, the French baguette was accepted onto Unesco’s “intangible cultural heritage” list says a lot.

And certainly, the boulangerie remains at the heart of village and town life. Each day, some 12 million people visit their local baker’s, which are not merely France’s favourite shops, but a key part of the national identity. If the baker’s shop shuts, the village is dying.

Italy

‘Gluten intolerance is less fretted over’

Anne Hanley

For many elderly Italians, especially country types, the word for meals is “companatico” – quite literally, the stuff that goes with bread. In fact, for all Italians, pane is an integral part of the meal: you wouldn’t think of eating – at home or out – without some on the table. It’s essential for directing stray items onto your fork, and for mopping up all that sauce left on your plate.

But this doesn’t mean that Italians today actually eat all that much bread. Per-head sales have plummeted from 84kg per person annually in 1980 to just 29kg in 2024 – not so much because of fads or gluten fixations but because it’s no longer considered a staple: the folk memory of harsh days when sufficient bread was key to providing essential carbs has waned. Which isn’t to say that coeliac disease and gluten intolerance – real and imagined – aren’t a thing, as the range of gluten-free products on supermarket shelves proves. It’s just a little less fretted over.

For most Italians, bread remains a part of culinary culture. Each region has its own: Rome’s rosetta; the chunky salt-free loaves of Umbria and Tuscany; Puglia’s chewy, slow-risen Altamura bread. Only a small percentage of bread consumed is of the sliced-and-packaged supermarket type. And relatively little of it forms the basis of snacks, which are more likely to come in the shape of a slab of pizza rustica.

Spain

‘There is no sense that bread is unhealthy’

Marti Buckley

The idea of our daily bread has never rung truer than at mealtimes in Spain. It’s the main event at breakfast, in the form of tosta and an indispensable part of both lunch and dinner. And not just in a “bread roll next to a plate” kind of way – the 2in hunk of sliced baguette is, along with the knife, spoon and fork, considered an essential piece of cutlery.

I have watched grown men falter without a piece of bread to assist in the eating process, used with the left hand to scoop food onto a spoon. As most food items are served in separate courses, it also serves to soak up any sauces and gravies in the absence of, say, mashed potatoes.

Perhaps its continued popularity for all-day consumption is due to the fact that Spanish flour typically has a lower gluten content than flour in Britain, which can make it easier to digest. In Spain, there is no sense that bread is unhealthy, and if anything, there is a rediscovery of bread’s amazing versatility in the form of an upsurge in artisan sourdough breads and a recovery of traditional baking methods.

Greece

‘Most tavernas think gluten-free means without eggs’

Heidi Fuller-Love

Enter any Greek taverna and (after the ceremonial laying of the paper tablecloth) you will be served with a basket of soft yellow bread cut into doorstop-sized hunks perfect for soaking up the herby olive oil oozing from your choriataki Greek salad or mopping up the juices from a medley of slow-cooked meat dishes.

According to the Deipnosophistae, Athenaeus of Naucratis’s discursive tome about the dining habits of his fellow scholars, back in AD 200 the Greeks had at least 72 different types of bread. Even today – from Crete’s twice-cooked dakos barley rusks to Thessaloniki’s ring-shaped, sesame-spotted koulouri – bread is an important staple; so much so that the Greeks have two different names for the floury stuff: “artos”, which is the ancient Greek word still seen on bakery signs, and the modern word “psomi”.

It’s also a vital element in every religious ritual or riotous festival: at Easter, Greeks flock to the church to pick up domed loaves that have been blessed by the priest, while spicy braided christopsomo buns are a popular treat at Christmas. Once perceived as an eccentric fad, gluten-free products are a growing trend, however – although a friend with intolerance issues complains that most tavernas seem to think “gluten-free” just means “without eggs”.