[tait]

The article claims that “People have survived for centuries off this staple consisting only of flour, water, salt, and yeast.”

I’d like to challenge this assertion. Can anybody name even one person who has survived for centuries off bread?

[overcast]

Ok Tait the Destroyer. It's not literally meant to be read as a single person living for hundreds of years on a bread diet.

[tomjakubowski]

I think it is absolutely fair to say that many, many people in the age of agriculture would not have survived if not for bread providing the bulk of their caloric needs. It seems unlikely that a pre-industrial agricultural society could even exist without bread or something like it. That's what it means for a food to be a "staple"; it is the crucial backbone of the person's or culture's diet.

[knicholes]

Obviously the world is unaware of anyone who has survived for centuries off of any food source. I think they meant to say, if you insist on being so very specific, "For centuries, within a typical human lifespan, individuals have survived by eating this diet."

[anjc]

The sentence you quoted was very precisely worded:

https://i.imgur.com/4n59IWT.jpg