Unleavened breads, such as the tortilla and roti, are staple foods in Central America and South Asia, respectively.

Unleavened sacramental bread plays a major part in Christian liturgy and Eucharistic theology.

[citation needed] On the other hand, most Eastern Churches explicitly forbid the use of unleavened bread (Greek: azymos artos) for the Eucharist.

Indeed, this usage figures as one of the three points of contention that traditionally accounted as causes (along with the issues of Petrine supremacy and the filioque in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) of the Great Schism of 1054 between Eastern and Western churches.

[2] Unleavened bread is acknowledged as being associated with zinc deficiency, a cause of various physical and psychological problems in humans, notably anxiety and aggression.