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The sordid history of children’s cereals
Bowlfuls of sugar
Breakfast cereals are widely regarded as a 20th Century food, but cereal was invented long before it became “The Breakfast of Champions,” as the renowned advertising slogan for Wheaties claimed. The first hot ground oatmeal cereal was created as early as 1854 by Ferdinand Schumacher, a German immigrant from Ohio, and the first cold breakfast cereal, “Granula” (which had to be soaked overnight for it to be palatable), was the invention of New Yorker James Caleb Jackson in 1863.
But the sugary cereal that became the staple of the Baby Boomer generation can first be attributed to the brothers Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan. (Battle Creek, by the way, is officially known as “the birthplace of cereal.” Today, you can pay homage to this beloved breakfast food by attending the annual “National Cereal Festival” there.)
John Harvey Kellogg, a surgeon who also ran a health spa in Battle Creek, came up with his own cereal, borrowing the “Granula” name and changing it to “granola” after a legal battle. He then teamed up with brother William and together, they invented Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. (No sugar added yet… but wait for it.) William saw the marketing potential of cereal and wanted to build a business around it. He bought John’s share of their cereal patents and went on to form the Kellogg Company in…
