“White bread and tea passed, in the course of a hundred years, from the luxuries of the rich to become the hall-marks of a poverty-line diet. Social imitation was one reason, though not the most important. . . . White bread, though it was better with meat, butter or cheese, needs none of these; a cup of tea converted a cold meal into something like a hot one, and gave comfort and cheer besides.”

—J. Burnett, Plenty and Want, 1966; Sidney W. Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, 1985.