Doris Margaret Louise Grant - née Cruikshank (Born January 25, 1905 ; Died February 27, 2003) was a British nutritionist and the inventor of the wartime Grant loaf

Grant loaf

A Grant loaf is a wholemeal bread, invented by accident, in World War II by baker Doris Grant , to encourage workers to eat well on their rations - the loaf was subsequently named after her...

. Grant was born in Scotland and was educated at Banff Academy.

After Banff Academy, Grant attended the Glasgow School of Art

Glasgow School of Art

Glasgow School of Art is one of only two independent art schools in Scotland, situated in the Garnethill area of Glasgow.-History:It was founded in 1845 as the Glasgow Government School of Design. In 1853, it changed its name to The Glasgow School of Art. Initially it was located at 12 Ingram...

 where she had won a scholarship to study in Rome; however the scholarship was removed after she had become engaged to her future husband Gordon Grant. Grant married in 1927 and soon afterwards moved to London, where her husband Gordon Grant set up the new London office for his family firm, William Grant

William Grant

Sir William Grant was a British lawyer, Member of Parliament from 1790–1812 and Master of the Rolls from 1801–1817.He was born at Elchies, Moray, Scotland...

, the distillers.

Over many years Grant championed the use of fresh and natural ingredients along with minimising the amount of processing in our food in doing so she ran a long campaign against many of the major food companies by continually criticising the overuse of refined carbohydrates, especially in the manufacture of white bread and sugar.

Grant Loaf

Grant discovered the secret for the loaf, which was subsequently named after her, by accident when she realised that she had forgotten to knead the wholemeal dough she was making, and found it to have a superior taste to its kneaded counterparts. The bread was subsequently promoted as a way of encouraging wartime wives to eat well on their rations.