The Ancient Roman Diet Lives On In This Loaf Bread Your Grandma Probably Ate In The '70s

If you had health-conscious family or friends in the '70s or '80s, there's a decent chance you would have encountered a bread brand called Roman Meal in their pantry. Marked with a picture of a Roman legionnaire on the packaging, this dense whole-grain loaf staked a claim to a seriously historic backstory.

Roman Meal started out in Tacoma, Washington, in 1912, as the brainchild of Canadian doctor Robert Jackson, who moved there to seek medical treatment. He set his sights on healthy eating as a way to recover, but this was also accompanied by an obsession with ancient Rome. He latched onto stories of Roman armies marching long distances, fueled by grains like wheat and rye. He believed this was the answer to good health, and set about creating a grain-filled hot breakfast cereal with rye, bran, and flaxseed. Historically speaking, Jackson was more or less correct, as Roman soldiers did mostly live off breads and porridges (wheat was the main grain used), though whether or not they were healthy by modern standards is another question.

In the 1920s, a Tacoma-area baker bought the company; he had German ancestors who were bakers, so leaning on his family history, he pivoted away from cereal towards bread (Germany is known for its hearty grain breads). Thus, one of the first whole-grain loaves on the commercial market in the United States was born.

Although Roman Meal hasn't completely vanished, it's probably safe to say that it's had its heyday. The Matthaei family (of that original Tacoma bakery) held on to the brand for four generations, building an empire that spanned 90 bakeries in the States and internationally. It became popular in the 1970s concurrently with whole grains' rise, thanks to an odd mix of nutritionist advice and hippie preferences. Yet its ubiquity declined over time, and by the 2010s, the owners admitted to the Puget Sound Business Journal that it was struggling. Whole grain bread had remained popular, but Roman Meal had to contend with new competitors with better distribution systems and fads like the low-carb keto diet that pushed people away from bread.

In 2015, Georgia-based company Flowers Foods (known for Nature's Own and nostalgic Wonder Bread) bought the Roman Meal trademark for North America. At some point after that, it discontinued production of Roman Meal bread; the company seems to have killed it off so quietly that it's not even clear when it vanished, but possibly in 2022, when it shut down a major Arizona baking center. However, if you're traveling in East and Southeast Asia, you might still spot Roman Meal bread. Another arm of the company, called Roman Meal International, stayed with the Matthaei family, continuing to offer its bread in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong, and the company maintains an online presence for those markets. But for Americans, you'll have to find another way to eat like a Roman soldier.