As you take a bite of a bagel, does it feel and taste like bread or something completely different? This issue surrounding whether bagels are considered bread is a hot topic that has been constantly debated about.

Let’s start by comparing and contrasting a typical loaf of bread and a bagel. Bread is usually baked and refers to products made of a yeast/wheat dough, it has an outer crust and softer inside, and the slices of bread are in square shapes. Bagels are boiled instead of baked but are also made of a yeast/wheat dough, shaped in circles with a hole in the middle, and have a firmer and chewier texture than a typical bread but still has a slight crust on the outside. There are many different types of bread such as Pita, Sourdough, Ciabatta, Baguette, the list goes on and on. The breads may not look or taste the same but most people agree that these varieties all would be considered a bread. The only difference that seems to be between a typical bread and bagel is the shape and the way it is made, which is not enough to make a bagel a completely different category to the rest of bread products. If one were to search up types of bread in google, bagels are included in this list.

14 different Ames High students responded to the question, “Do you think bagels are bread?” and the results were split. 7 people considered bagels to not be a bread while 7 people believed they were a bread. Junior, Nicole Cho, gives an interesting take on her outlook of the bagels v. bread debate, “Technically yes, I think bagels are bread. Bagels and bread are like an Iced Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks and a regular espresso shot. Technically they are both caffeine but one just tastes a little better.”

Bagels may not be the stereotypical bread, but it seems to fall into the category of this type of food. Although there are some differences, bagels don’t share more characteristics of other foods than they do with bread and are not unique enough to have their own category. Bagels are bread. While bagels may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of bread, it still falls into what would classify a product to be a type of bread.