# Wonder Bread helps build strong bodies 12 ways? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 7, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-bread-helps-build-strong-bodies-12-ways/325180 "2005-10-07T13:41:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-bread-helps-build-strong-bodies-12-ways/325180/21 "2023-06-04T21:10:51Z")
Short article summarizing the history of Wonder Bread. > **[Reliving the Wonder Years of Wonder Bread - JSTOR Daily](https://daily.jstor.org/history-of-wonder-bread/)** > > This story is as enriching as the added nutrients in the legendary white bread. Long article that gives the answer! > **[Wonder Bread: The Most Famous White Bread](https://americacomesalive.com/wonder-bread/)** > > Wonder Bread was first made by the Taggart Baking Company In Indianapolis in 1921. The advance ads promised: "Wonder was coming." And it did. The eight ways: 1. ``` Protein ``` 2. ``` Calcium ``` 3. ``` Phosphorous ``` 4. ``` Iron ``` 5. ``` Vitamin B1 ``` 6. ``` Vitamin B2 ``` 7. ``` Niacin ``` 8. ``` And energy ``` The twelve ways: 1. ``` Builds muscle ``` 2. ``` Bones and teeth ``` 3. ``` Increases body cells ``` 4. ``` Improves blood ``` 5. ``` Creates better appetite ``` 6. ``` Helps children grow bigger and stronger ``` 7. ``` Increases brain cells ``` 8. ``` Adds more red cells ``` 9. ``` Provides vitamin B ``` 10. ``` Potassium ``` 11. ``` Helps build tissue ``` 12. ``` Supplies more energy ``` Here’s [a 1945 newspaper ad](https://www.ebay.com/itm/372989051369?hash=item56d7e141e9:g:umAAAOSwoR1dL3VW&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4Hm51Xc9elh3nldU8ubX6jRQsXR7mimAtvZ%2ByCqGl%2BRuEPaAwn5fH593M21uRM4CmVNTj61FuJitoyQ%2Btc%2FE3EqPIefrtae4IZ%2Fns0xogOrUURg2YpomTMH6FukCogEDz2alqXvfih8LGt1m%2BqfhewSdbp49COlPZuRDA0M6VKw6OyV1CG0xK6q7Vz8ti0MGr851oljxD0a6jL5BOE8Syb%2Bt76wEesvV%2Fyu51dovWcy1rAsLbo267omnZ4YbdG6Lx0O1CbAB81FowbeH%2B75tEP31Oh0N2MNEwFcsBfrOrtG4%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4L5tISRYg) that expands on the eight ways If you search the topic on Google, this thread is the first hit. So why are the Powers That Be ignoring what should be a lucrative exploitable resource? I know Cecil is trying to revive his column but the posts themselves are an archive that shouldn’t be left to drift out into space. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-bread-helps-build-strong-bodies-12-ways/325180/22 "2023-06-04T21:55:10Z")
You can roll it up in a little ball, put it on a hook, and if you’re very lucky, you might catch a fish. And fish is good for you. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-bread-helps-build-strong-bodies-12-ways/325180/23 "2023-06-06T00:39:57Z")
The “Strong bodies 12 ways” wasn’t the only slogan for bread that I remember from my youth. There was a popular kids show out of Sioux Falls, where Captain 11 (from channel 11) would show the likes of Popeye and Snagglepuss cartoons. In between, he would peddle to kids, often Wonder Bread. He would have kids who were in the studio with him, there to watch cartoons, to come up and try to tear a slice of Wonder Bread neatly in half without tearing. It was harder than it seems. I wonder how many parents hated multiple slices of bread getting wasted this way by kids practicing at home; I know my mom did. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-bread-helps-build-strong-bodies-12-ways/325180/24 "2023-06-06T20:01:09Z")
‘Fights Headaches Three Ways’ - anyone else remember this? Might have been devised by Doyle Dane Bernbach agency. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-bread-helps-build-strong-bodies-12-ways/325180/25 "2023-06-06T20:11:11Z")
The FDA is underfunded and has limited powers of enforcement. Food companies are not permitted to tell bald-faced lies. They can’t say (in theory, and would be daft to do so in practice) wheat bread is gluten free, nor say food is free of nuts if it ain’t. “Health claims” make mention of a specific disease or process, so the FDA can theoretically intervene if an American company says its food helps prevent osteoporosis or heart disease. Show me the studies! So companies make “structure function claims”. Good source of fiber, calcium helps build strong bones, now with 50% more vitamins and other vague things like “12 ways”. Implying health benefits without being too specific, or needing expensive confirmation. It is legal to make irrelevant structure claims too - bottled water _is_ low in cholesterol and GMO products. Of course the area between structure and health claims is large and helps fund many lawyerly things. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-bread-helps-build-strong-bodies-12-ways/325180/26 "2023-06-06T20:29:17Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > It is legal to make irrelevant structure claims too - bottled water _is_ low in cholesterol and GMO products. And gluten-free! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-bread-helps-build-strong-bodies-12-ways/325180/27 "2023-06-06T20:38:54Z")
To me it’s ‘wonder[ful]’ people can mix all-purpose flour with ingredients and make it edible. When they invented it in Sumer it was and still is a lufe changing food design ever. I mean I love to make Shoo-fly Pie where it’s got the basic crumb topping of 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 c of brown sugar and 2 Tb of butter. You’d think that would taste rank but you lay it over a cup of molasses and tapwater. All of a sudden I’d eat some every day, as ‘part of a balanced diet.’ Yet another creation some ordinary person came up with! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-bread-helps-build-strong-bodies-12-ways/325180.md?page=1)