There
is no doubt that cold cereals revolutionized the American table . not did mom
need to cook cereal , eggs or meat, and youngsters could independently prepare
something for themselves before avoiding to high school . At the turn of the 20
th century, the creation of dry cereal basically began with two enterprising
men who saw the chances and took a big gamble . And breakfast has never been an
equivalent .
In
the late 1890s, a rather eccentric man named John Harvey Kellogg, ran a health
sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, and had created a bland, tasteless food
for his patients with digestive issues. a couple of years later, his brother
Will decided to mass-market the new food at his new company, Battle Creek
Toasted cold cereal Company, adding a touch of sugar to the flakes recipe
making it more palatable for the masses, and a star was born.
Around
the same time, C. W. Post, who had been a patient at Kellogg's sanitarium, introduced
an alternate to coffee called Postum, followed by Grape-Nuts (which don't have
anything to try to to with either grapes or nuts) and his version of Kellogg's
corn flakes, naming them Post Toasties, and America's breakfasts were never an
equivalent .
Both
men could thank an enterprising gentleman by the name of Sylvester Graham, who
forty years earlier had experimented with whole wheat flour , marketing it to
assist "digestive problems." He created a breakfast cereal that was
dried and broken into shapes so hard they needed to be soaked in milk
overnight, which he called granula (the father of granola and graham crackers).
Capitalizing
thereon original idea, in 1898 the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) began
producing graham crackers supported the experiments of Sylvester Graham, first
promoting them as a "digestive" cracker for people with stomach
problems; (Seems tons of individuals had digestive problems even some time past
.)
Fast
forward and other companies were sitting up and taking notice. The Quaker Oats
Company, acquired a way which forced rice grains to explode and commenced
marketing cold cereal and cold cereal , calling them a marvel of food science
which was "the first food shot from guns" (oh boy, would they are
available under attack for that one today, no pun intended);
1920s
Wheaties was introduced and cleverly targeted athletes as they proclaimed to be
the "Breakfast of Champions;"
The
1930s saw The Ralston Purina company introduce an early version of Wheat Chex,
calling it Shredded Ralston (sounds a touch painful);
Soon
Cheerios appeared and would become the best-selling cereal in America, worth
about $1 billion in sales in 2015.
No
one can dispute the convenience and flexibility of dry packaged cereal. within
the last fifty years, this multi-billion dollar industry has spun off multiple
uses, unlimited possibilities and targeted kids with clever packaging,
outrageous names, flavors, colors and choices (all loaded with sugar of
course). What might be more American than corn flakes?
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