Skip to content
Culture & Religion —

Turkish Prime Minister Goes After White Bread

Not for the first time, health-conscious Recep Tayyip Erdogan attempts to influence citizens’ eating habits by recommending that the popular staple be replaced with whole wheat bread.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

What’s the Latest Development?

Amid reports that private equity firms from the US and the Middle East are seeking a 50 percent stake in one of Turkey’s top baked-goods producers, prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan exhorted citizens to replace white bread with “pure, genuine wheat bread, and in addition, let’s bring to the table bread with a high ratio of bran in it.” Bread is a popular staple in Turkish cuisine; over 37 billion loaves are baked annually. The targeted company, Simit Sarayi, produces a type of bagel that wasn’t included in the prime minister’s recommendation for change.

What’s the Big Idea?

It’s not the first time Erdogan has attempted to influence Turkish citizens’ personal habits. Since 2008 he has championed the country’s smoking ban, and last year the government passed legislation limiting Caesarean-section births in response to his opposition to the procedure. With regards to bread, his motives are monetary as well as dietary: Two billion loaves of bread go to waste each year, he said, and the money spent on producing them could go towards paying worker salaries or building schools. Such savings will help Turkey meet its goal of becoming one of the world’s top-10 economies in the next 10 years. 

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

Read it at The Wall Street Journal

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next