The Myth Behind The Invention Of Kellogg's Cereal

Cereal isn't supposed to be controversial, right? But in the late 1800s, cereal was seen as a radical cure for all sorts of ills. In particular, one of the inventors of Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, believed that bland food (like cereal) would help stop people from masturbating. So, was Kellogg's Corn Flakes invented specifically to prevent this act? Not entirely. While masturbation panic does play a role in this story, cereal was primarily seen as good for digestion.

As a Seventh-day Adventist, Kellogg was influenced by Christian theology. He was also trained as a medical doctor, and the combination of his faith and belief in science led him to develop some ... interesting theories. Kellogg believed there was a causal relationship between the food one consumed and sexual desire. As a proponent of the clean living movement, he emphasized temperance. 

Kellogg thought people should avoid meat, spices, coffee, cigarettes, and sex — particularly masturbation. He believed that masturbation would lead to insanity and other problems, such as, but not limited to, "failure of mental capacity, fickleness, untrustworthiness ... shifty eyes ... and hysteria in females" (via JSTOR Daily). Kellogg suggested that bland cereal should be consumed as part of an "unstimulating" diet, as he wrote in his 1887 book "Plain Facts for Old and Young : Embracing the Natural History and Hygiene of Organic Life." According to the pseudoscientific theories Kellogg subscribed to, if you ate this kind of food, you would not be tempted to masturbate. However, Kellogg never marketed corn flakes for the purpose of stopping masturbation; the cereal was publicized for helping with indigestion.

Nutrition played a huge role in how John Harvey Kellogg thought about health. As the director of Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, a hospital and health spa run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Kellogg ensured that eating bland food was the practice of the day. But his opinions about diet and wellness extended beyond his belief in bland food's ability to temper sexual urges (although, if cereal didn't help with masturbation, Kellogg had disturbing backup plans, such as tying hands together or even surgery, per History). He had lots of theories about food and the body, including encouraging people to chew each bite of food at least 40 times for optimal digestion. And he was obsessed with enemas, especially yogurt enemas for colon health. 

That said, Kellogg's goal was to create a food that would be easy do digest and healthy. He created a food that was essentially ground-up baked oatmeal and corn meal. This was called "granula." However, a similar food item with the same name had already been manufactured by James Caleb Jackson, another inventor who ran his own sanatorium. Caleb threatened to sue, so Kellogg changed the name to "granola." 

Kellogg didn't stop at granola. Next, Kellogg, his wife Ella, and his brother W.K. came up with a flaked cereal. However, there is disagreement about who was the most important contributor in that process. What is certain is that dough was left out overnight and Kellogg didn't want to waste it. He ran it through a rolling machine and discovered the flakes left behind could be baked and eaten.

In order to sell corn flakes, John Harvey Kellogg and his brother W.K. partnered up. But W.K. wanted to add sugar to the bland cereal, convinced it wouldn't sell. In 1906, W.K. started his own business called the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. Eventually, this became the Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake Company — and a lifelong feud between the brothers began. 

Over the years, Kellogg's has released many kinds of cereals, such as Raisin Bran, Special K, Frosted Mini Wheats, Froot Loops and others. You probably have a box or two of Kellogg's cereal in your pantry right now. And while no one really believes that eating cereal will help stop you from masturbating, John Harvey Kellogg's belief in the strange, unscientific connection between bland food and masturbation prevention remains a fixture of this story and a reminder of the curious ways people thought about food during the late 1800s.

As for John Harvey? He died in 1943 and left his estate to the Race Betterment Foundation, a eugenics organization he founded himself (maybe you saw this coming, but the purity-obsessed Kellogg was a proponent of racist practices such as sterilization). Perhaps he would have been horrified that Kellogg's brand now sells decidedly not-bland popular snack foods like Hot & Spicy Cheez-Its.