Unleavened breads have symbolic importance in
Judaism and
Christianity. Jews and Christians consume unleavened breads such as
matzo during
Passover and
Eucharist, respectively, as commanded in Exodus 12:18. Per the
Torah Old Testament, they were instructed, "Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land."
Canon Law of the
Latin Church within the
Catholic Church mandates the use of unleavened bread for the
Host, and unleavened
wafers for the communion of the faithful. Some
Protestant churches tend to follow the Latin Catholic practice, whereas others use either unleavened bread or wafers or ordinary (leavened) bread, depending on the traditions of their particular denomination or local usage.[citation needed]
Unleavened bread is acknowledged as being associated with zinc deficiency, a cause of various physical and psychological problems in humans, notably anxiety and aggression. [2] In 1999,
Edward de Bono suggested to the UK
Foreign Office that such a deficiency contributed to the
Arab-Israeli conflict as bread in the
Middle East is unleavened, and recommended the distribution of jars of
Marmite to assuage the problem. [3]
Varieties of unleavened bread
Arboud – Unleavened bread made of wheat flour baked in the embers of a campfire, traditional among
ArabBedouin.
Bataw – Unleavened bread made of barley, corn, or wheat, traditional in
Egypt.
Crepe – a
French unleavened pancake eaten both for breakfast and dessert
Damper – traditional
Australian colonial bread, originally unleavened
Fritos and similar
corn chips – technically a type of unleavened bread, though not commonly thought of as such, Fritos are a popular snack in the
United States.
Kitcha –
Ethiopian type of flat bread used mainly in the traditional fit-fit or chechebsa dish.
Matzo –
Jewish flat bread used in religious ceremony
Piadina – from the
Romagna historical region of Italy, made of wheat flour, lard or olive oil, water and salt. Up to the 1940s it could be up to 2 cm thick, while the variant of
Rimini has always been much thinner.
^Sandstead, H. H. & Freeland-Graves, J. H. (2014) Dietary phytate, zinc and hidden zinc deficiency. Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology Vol. 28, Issue 4, October 2014, pp 414-417. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
[1]
^Jury, Louise (1999). De Bono's Marmite plan for peace in Middle Yeast. The Independent 19 December 1999. London: Independent Digital News & Media Ltd.
[2]