Restaurants aren’t just giving you free bread out of the kindness of their hearts—they have an ulterior motive according to this viral TikTok.
First of all, the “complimentary” bread (or chips or pita, depending on the restaurant) isn’t really that free. While we enjoy the illusion of getting free food, restaurants actually take the cost of providing baskets of bread into account and integrate it in the menu price for the rest of your food.
Restaurants have a historically low profit margin, so it makes sense that they’re not giving stuff away for the fun of it.
Now, onto this viral claim.
In a TikTok video with more than 800,000 views, Natwaliew (@natwaliew) says she just found out the reason restaurants give bread and butter before meals is to “spike our glucose which results in eating more. after 90 minutes yu crash which makes people more likely to order dessert like WHAT?!!?”
She’s not the only one with this theory. Now, she’s not entirely wrong, but she’s not entirely right either.
Yes, the complimentary pre-meal snack restaurants give you is usually a simple carb that gets broken down by your body quickly and turns into sugar, spiking your blood sugar levels. To deal with this spike, your body releases insulin (which helps move the glucose through your bloodstream for energy).
But as quickly as it spikes your blood sugar, it can bring it right back down again, making you feel hungry sooner (compared to if you had a more satiating food like a mix of carbs, fiber, and protein or a more complex carb like whole wheat).
Now that all that science is out of the way let’s get to the nitty gritty. While that may be one of the reasons restaurants give out the bread, it’s not the only one, according to several articles from food magazines and culture sites like Mashed and Tasting Table.
Here are a few other reasons restaurants give out free bread:
- To keep you calm
- Chances are when you arrive at a restaurant, you’re hungry already. Even if you put in your order immediately, it’s likely going to take a solid 10-25 minutes for your food to come out. If you don’t have anything to munch on, it could quickly lead to irritation and hanger. Having something to eat can help prevent those feelings. It can even give servers and the kitchen a longer grace period if they happen to be running behind.
- Hopes of reciprocity
- Getting something “free” makes people feel good, so they may be inclined to order more or get a pricier item.
- Historical roots
- Free bread allegedly started long ago in taverns, Food Republic reported. Early restaurants encouraged patrons to fill up on bread so that the restaurant didn’t have to buy as many of the expensive ingredients—mainly meat—for the main course.
@natwaliew mind is blown #food #glucose #foryou #viral #fyp ♬ Go Viral – Vidzard
But people in the comment section said that this practice doesn’t work on them.
“Nah that ish makes me full by the time the actual food comes out,” the top comment, with more than 6,500 likes, read.
“Well jokes on them . My stomach is tiny so bread will prevent me from ordering anything else,” a person said.
“I eat ALL the bread & eat HALF my food & NEVER get desert,” another shared.
The Daily Dot reached out to Natwaliew for comment via Instagram direct message.
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