Meat, eggs, fried potatoes, sausage, hot biscuits, butter, jam, and coffee. Up until the mid-1800s that was a “healthy” breakfast.
No one worried about upset tummies or cholesterol.
Enter James Caleb Jackson. He was a reformer, abolitionist, and doctor who had strong beliefs on how to maintain good health. As a vegan, Jackson advocated simple food, clean air and water, sunshine, solid sleep, exercise, and hydropathy.
Compliments of J.C. Buttre, Wikimedia Commons
In 1858 Jackson bought a former spa in Dansville, NY and called it Our Home On The Hillside. According to the National Health Association, it was on a hill surrounded by scenic woods, overlooking a picturesque valley – ideal for people to restore their health. The Doctor worked with his wife Lucretia and their adopted daughter, Dr. Harriet Newell Austin (one of the first women in the world to receive the degree of Doctor of Medicine).
As a physician, lecturer, and editor of a health journal, Jackson preached the gospel of health, focusing on the digestive system. He hated the traditional breakfast, maintaining that it caused stomach problems, “lust and laziness.” He devised a plant-based cereal called granula using bran-rich graham flour.
There was one problem. Granula came in brittle cakes, was too hard to chew, and had be soaked overnight in milk.
Compliments of da**@st**.com, Wikimedia Commons
Granula was as popular as a nasty alien-green smoothie. Mental Floss noted that “eaten dry, the granula was like trying to swallow construction rubble.”
Sounds yummy.
The solution was to soak it overnight in milk or water. Since water tends to create mush, milk was the liquid of choice. Milk also added “healthy” ingredients.
Enter the Kellogg brothers.
John Harvey Kellogg ran a Seventh Day Adventist Health Sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan. Using his medical and spiritual training, Kellogg appealed to wealthy, “constipated” patrons by promoting “biologic living” – vegetarian diet, no alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, and condiments with minimal eggs and dairy.
No one liked the bland diet. John, his wife, and younger brother set up the Sanitas Food Company to develop new products for the diet.
In 1894 they were trying to create a digestible bread from boiled wheat rolled out and baked when they accidentally discovered Granose – the world’s first flaked cereal. Toasted cornflakes followed a few years later – served, like Granula, with milk.
Milk and cereal were married.
It took a skilled entrepreneur to see the potential. Charles William Post had been a patient at Kellogg’s Sanitarium. Remaining in Battle Creek, Post started his own sanitarium with a powerful advertising campaign. He introduced Postum, a coffee replacement touted to make “red blood.” Two years later he launched a new sweetened cereal. He called the cereal Grape-Nuts, even though it didn’t contain any grapes or nuts.
The cereal-and-milk wars were born.
Compliments of Dodge, Mary Mapes, Wikimedia Commons
By 1903, nearly 100 cereal companies crowded into Battle Creek. Names, ideas, and advertising swelled the market. It was much easier to grab a bowl of cold cereal and milk than make a traditional breakfast.
James Ford Bell, founder of General Mills, was a business leader and philanthropist. In 1921 there was an accidental spill of wheat bran mixture on a hot stove. It crackled and sizzled into a crisp flake. The Minnesota Washburn Crosby Company (later General Mills) spent years perfecting the new product. By 1924, after 36 attempts, Washburn’s Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes was introduced.
Soon after, the name was changed to Wheaties.
Within a few years, Wheaties became associated with sports. The “Breakfast of Champions” featured athletes on its box like Lou Gehrig (1934) and Mary Lou Retton (1984) to Babe Ruth (1992) and Serena Williams (2019). The cereal is made from whole grain wheat, sugar, honey, salt, and vitamin E. Not exactly granula but a lot tastier.
After World War II the cereal companies began to target children. It wasn’t hard – add more sugar, flavors, and colors and promote mascots like Tony the Tiger (Frosted Flakes), Lucky the Leprechaun (Lucky Charms) and Toucan Sam (Froot Loops). The sugar content increased and “healthy” decreased.
Today the cure for “lust and laziness” has over 5,000 varieties. There are the regular brands along with gluten-free, organic, and non-GMO. The market value is over $40 billion. The most popular brand is Cheerios and the top cereal manufacturers are names we all know – Kellogg, Post, and General Mills.
Cold cereal and milk are forever.
