CEREAL: Today’s cereal aisle is lined with colorful boxes advertising any number of flavor combinations, marshmallows and even ice cream-flavored goodness that you can eat for breakfast with no guilt.
However, cereal has not always been the brightly colored substance with sugar content that makes dentists and doctors alike shudder.
Instead, the breakfast food began as a tasteless mixture of graham flour and water — called “granula.” The concoction was created by Dr. James Caleb Jackson, who believed strongly in cleansing the body. Granula was so hard it had to be soaked in milk overnight before it could be consumed, but nonetheless the creation breathed life into the breakfast food known as cereal.
The food was most often served in sanitariums and did not receive much recognition — until John Henry Kellogg was hired at one such location. Kellogg and his brother, Will, were the creators of the first commercial cereal flake. They also created a product they named granola.
Will Kellogg created the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, which became the Kellogg Company in a matter of years.
By 1902, 40 cereal brands had emerged in the area of Battle Creek, Mich. At that time, a man named Dr. Alexander P. Anderson perfected the puffed rice technique and sold it to Quaker Oats, allowing the company to be responsible for introducing the first puffed rice cereal in 1905.
Sugar became a key ingredient in cereal in 1939, when a cereal called Ranger Joe Popped Wheat Honnies — which led the charge of cereals marketed to children.
With the introduction of sweetened cereal varieties, product placement and cereal appearances in children’s stories paired with cartoon characters on the box to boost competition for the attention of the younger consumer.
Eventually, eating cereal became paired with Saturday morning cartoons — even after the FCC mandated that characters from a show could not be used in commercials during that show. The idea of eating cereal soaking in ice cold milk and watching cartoons on a weekend morning is a long-standing tradition enjoyed by generation after generation.
Even the cereals marketed to adults focus on a variety of tastes and presentations to make the sale.
