Atheist tries Ezekiel Bread

Editorial by Jim Walker

While walking past the bread section in my local grocery store a few weeks ago, I did a double take at a bread loaf called Ezekiel 4:9. "What?" I exclaimed to myself. Has the world gone so nutty that merchandisers are now taking advantage of gullible religious people? (They also have a Genesis 1:29 bread!)

The Food For Life Corporation apparently thinks that Biblical bread will help sell its products to American Christians. Perhaps it will considering the vast majority of them in America. Food for Life claims that its products are "inspired" by the Holy Scriptures (a poorly disguised euphemism that means that their bread is also inspired by god). What religious person could pass that up? Of course their real inspiration is in making money.

You see, Ezekiel 4:9 refers to a passage in the Bible that describes how to prepare bread with wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and fitches (spelt). The problem here is that the biblical recipe was intended to help survive famine during an upcoming siege, not because it tastes good or that it's healthy for you. Barley and millet, throughout history, has been considered a poor man's food. Barley is a hardy grain that survives drought and frosts. It also grows in alkali soils. It is usually fed to livestock, but humans can eat it too if they can stomach the flavor. Millet is a bland tasting grass used mainly in disadvantaged counties to feed the poor (and the seeds are given to birds). It's also found in "natural" food stores because it's exotic (which means that its rarely eaten, especially by well-to-do people). Ezekiel 4:9 bread is also expensive. In fact it was the most expensive bread in the grocery store, a rip-off, if you ask me. Hint: you can make low glycemic barley bread on your own much cheaper (you can find free recipes online).

Just for fun I bought a loaf of Ezekiel 4:9 bread just to see what it tastes like. As I expected, it tastes horrible, just as one would expect from grains and grass that only a starving person would eat. Only if the religious-right's self-fulfilling prophecy of Armageddon comes near (not likely!) and we pagans end up starving before our final demise, maybe then I'll eat it again, but never again, if I have a choice.

[link to www.nobeliefs.com]