John Harvey Kellogg (February 26, 1852 – December 14, 1943)
Did you he was an American medical doctor, nutritionist, inventor & health activist? Neither did I! He also advocated vegetarian diets. As a physician in US John Kellogg was ahead of his time and understood how gut bacteria in our intestines is linked to health & disease. He advocated spa treatments, hydrotherapy, exercise & healthy eating with sugar free diets 🙂
He invented & introduced a healthy sugar free cereal to his in house health resort patients. This consisted primarily of bran-rich graham flour made into nugget shapes to which later it was consumed with milk to make it taste better. This was a hit with his patients. Little did he know that he would be creating modern breakfast cereals for America, UK and other western countries. His brother suggested the idea to mass market this cereal to everyone & John Kellogg rejected this idea. A patient staying at his health resort in Michigan called James C. Jackson who had a history of many failed businesses, stole the brother Will Kellogg’s ideas. He made the cereal of grape nuts & called it Granula, which had sugar ?
The Kellogg’s brothers changed the name of their cereal to Granola, due to lawsuit threat from their enemy James.
Luck was on the Kellogg’s brothers side, as they accident invented a flaked cereal in 1894 which they marketed as Granose & patented. Made of boiled wheat run though a pasta-flattening device. Later maize was used. Today it is famously known Corn Flakes! His brother and others were more interested in sales therefore sugar was added to make it palatable. Soon after came rice krispies & other Kellogg’s cereals!
I wonder what Dr J Kellogg would think of modern day cereals sittings on the shelves today which contain far too much sugar and other processed grains!! I won’t name and shame which ones 🙂
Both brothers lived until 91 years 🙂
Another interesting fact: John Kellogg is one of several people who have been credited with the invention of peanut butter!
