How to Eat Bread, 1634

Arm und Reich (17th c.)

Bread that commeth hote from the Oven is unwholesome… hot bread causeth thirstinesse, by reason that it is hot, for it swimmeth in the stomacke, by reason of his vaporous humidity: yet it is of quicke digestion, and descendeth stoutly downe. And although that hote bread… be unwholesome to eate: yet the smell thereof is right wholesome, for it relieveth one in a swound: and it is possible, that some folke may live by the smell of new bread… Beware of crusts eating, because they ingender a dust cholor, or melancholly humours, by reason that they bee burned and dry. And therefore great estates… cause the crustes above and beneath to be chipped away, wherefore the pith or crumme should be chosen, the which is of a greater nourishment than the crust.

Regimen sanitatis Salerni: or, the Schoole of Salernes Regiment of Health

Fresh-baked bread! Its aroma alone can revive you from a swoon and keep you alive in tough times, but don’t, you know, actually try to eat it. Also: here’s some hard science to back up the crust-trimmers out there.