On Day 8 of the lockdown, 3 April, Schalk Bezuidenhout raised the question, “Why is everyone and their mother eating (insert swear word) banana bread?” Maybe you’ve noticed too, but baking banana bread has become a thing! South Africans have become obsessed with it. David Scott from The Kiffness sang about banana bread in his Quaranqueen parody. Banana bread recipes are being shared on Radio 702 and Cape Talk. People who have never baked anything before have now started baking.
Overseas the bread-baking craze was already in full swing. BBC Food said that visits to its site started increasing on March 23 – the day their lockdown was announced. On the next Sunday the site had 7.8 million page views – the most traffic in its history, “beating Christmas, Easter and Pancake day”. (5) Google Trends reports that in the UK searches for banana bread have gone up by 84% in the last month, and by 54% across the globe. (1) Stephen Fry has also been baking up a storm in the UK. (OK, he made the more advanced sourdough bread.) Celebrities and chefs, such as Mark Bittman in the USA, are sharing their favourite banana recipes. And the variations to accommodate intolerances are not neglected – there are recipes for gluten free (the British ran out of flour), egg free and sugar free banana breads. (When are we rather going to add stuff? I saw an enticing recipe with chocolate and sesame seeds!)
Seemingly overnight, we have all become BBBs – banana bread bakers (and not the Better Business Bureau). (1)
Bread is a staple in the West. It will be interesting to see if there has been a rice or potato frenzy in other parts of the world. Since I am writing this on Easter weekend, I am struck by the symbolic significance of bread. In the Christian religion, bread represents the supreme gift from God to humankind – eternal life, the body of Christ in the Eucharist, “Take this and eat, for this is my body”. (6)
On Day 15 my husband baked banana bread muffins. He had no idea that banana bread baking was a thing. He made a beef stew from a Karoo cookbook the previous day, where he then saw the banana bread recipe and baked the muffins without any questioning. I am not complaining, but I do wonder whether he deviated from his usual beer bread recipe only because his beer supply was running low?
It is weird that we started baking banana bread, but what is even weirder is that we started baking it around the world around same time! It is as if the urge to bake banana bread was spread through the collective of our unconscious minds quicker than the coronavirus was able to transmit. And I, too, have become intrigued by the banana baking frenzy.
The obvious reasons for baking banana bread are that we have more time, baking is a nurturing activity, bananas are cheap, and banana bread is reasonably flop proof.
In the uncertain times of the coronavirus pandemic it is reassuring to bake something sweet. Through the years we seemingly resorted to baking cakes during difficult times. Before banana bread there was carrot cake. During World War II and the rationing of food, carrots (which were available in large supply) became very popular in the UK, and as a result the British Ministry of Food began to spread literature about the health benefits of carrots to promote its consumption. (2) The result was more carrot cake baking.
Baking is very comforting. It can ease anxiety and depression. Linda Blair, a clinical psychologist, says baking can “sooth frayed nerves: it allows the brain to rest, it engages the senses and it offers a sense of connectedness”. (3)
Baking requires focus; for best results it should be done accurately. Baking is physics in action. Combine eggs, flour, sugar and butter (and bananas) and out comes a delicious creation, as if by magic. Baking therefore increases mindfulness by allowing us to be fully present in the here and now.
The smell of a delicious cake coming out of the oven is very powerful. The smell of something can immediately trigger a detailed memory or even intense emotion. Smells bypass the normal sensory tracts, and go straight to the olfactory bulb, which is directly connected to the amygdala (the part of the brain that plays a role in fear processing) and hippocampus (another part that plays a role in learning and memory). These days we are more used to looking at screens (visual stimulation) so we neglect the benefits of pleasant smells (olfactory stimulation). So, be sure to forge happy memories when you are baking banana bread, because in the future the smell of bananas is going to take you back to your lockdown experience!
Baking for others is a helpful way to communicate our feelings and is really an expression of love. (4) It feels good to do something nice for others.
But why is baking such a spontaneous phenomenon around the world?
I think Schalk Bezuidenhout had good reason to be freaked out by the seemingly sudden baking behaviour – ego-dystonic for many who attempted baking for the first time ever. Could it be that we are we programmed like robots to do certain things under certain circumstances?
From a psychoanalytic point of view we started baking banana bread around the world without consciously thinking about it, it was a collectively unconscious act. Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious is still controversial but maybe the banana baking frenzy now provides some supporting evidence. The theory states that the deepest parts of our minds are genetically inherited and not shaped by personal experience. The collective unconscious is common to all human beings and is responsible for deep-seated beliefs and instincts such as spirituality, sexual behaviour, and life and death instincts. This is one of the points where Jung and Freud differed, since Freud believed that the unconscious is a product of personal experience.
Jung also believed that the collective unconscious is made up of instincts and archetypes, and he considered the mother archetype to be the most important. It is a mothering/nurturing activity to make ourselves and our loved ones feel better, like your mother would do when you had a bad day at school. Therefore, Jung is saying that we are genetically programmed to act in a nurturing way when society is under threat.
All considered, I think all this banana bread baking is a good thing. We are trying to make a difficult time better by an activity that will evoke strong positive emotional memories in the future.
So, go forth and bake! Just be responsible. You know what happened with the toilet paper.
Dr Melane Van Zyl
References
- Everybody I know is baking banana bread in lockdown, Sadhbh O’Sullivan
- How Carrots Won World War II, Milk + Honey Baking History
- Soothe Stress – The Comfort and Joy of Baking, hopetocope.com
- Psychologists Explain The Benefits Of Baking For Other People, Huffpost
- Great British lockdown: bread-making frenzy sweeps the UK, Reuters
- Symbolism of Bread, Encyclopedia.com