How One Man’s Quest to Curtail Sin Led to Modern Breakfast Cereal

Fueled by his religious beliefs, J.H. Kellogg invented an entirely new food segment

Photo by Tiard Schulz on Unsplash

If you’ve eaten breakfast cereal, you know the name Kellogg. It has long been associated with the first meal of the day, and the popularization of breakfast cereals can largely be credited to the Kellogg family.

While there are entire aisles of the grocery store solely dedicated to breakfast cereals today, there was a time when none of these products existed. That was, until an eccentric man by the name of John Harvey Kellogg became dedicated to inventing his own “pure” food products. Due to his religious beliefs that flavorful foods were sinful and unclean, Kellogg was forced to think creatively and innovate when preparing meals.

While J.H. Kellogg was peculiar by many standards, he was a well-educated man for his time. Not only was he a medically trained doctor, but also a scholar, author, and inventor. Like many historical figures, to understand Kellogg’s success and discoveries, we must first uncover what influenced him as a young man.

The early years of J.H. Kellogg

Kellogg was born into a humble family in Tyrone, Michigan, in 1852. He was just one of the 16 children in…