by Diane Sagers

GUEST COLUMNIST

What did you have for breakfast this morning? If you choose the breakfast most Americans do, odds are that it included cold cereal. It comes in a wide array of styles and flavors designed to meet the tastes of nearly anyone at any age. This cold cereal phenomenon has a surprising history.

Until the early 20th century, the average American breakfast included mostly pork and beef. Fresh fruits and vegetables were not available year-round, so, particularly during the winter months, menus for all meals were low in fiber. As a result, digestive disorders were common.

The birth of granola

A Dr. James Caleb Jackson, who opened a sanitarium in Dansville, N.Y., developed a breakfast cereal to help resolve this problem and called it 'Granula.' Not to be mistaken for our modern granola, this cereal had dense bran chunks that had to be soaked overnight just to chew them. It was a breakfast "medicine" that didn't taste very good and didn't catch on.

However, one of his patients, Ellen G. White, determined that should be rejected outright and eventually formed the Seventh Day Adventist church. One of her congregation was a man named Dr. John Harvey Kellogg.

Kellogg ran a hospital and health spa -- the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Mich. Although most of his practices are now viewed as quackery, at the time he was highly respected. He developed another form of granula, using oats, wheat and corn meal.

To differentiate it from Jackson's, he put in an 'o,' making it granola.

He and his brother, Will Keith Kellogg, made more types of granola using various grain mixtures. One of their foods was made with wheat meal that they formed into a very large cracker, roasted it and then ground into granola. One evening, they accidentally left a batch of boiled wheat meal out. When they found it the next day, they ran it through the rollers to see if they could save it.

Instead of forming a huge sheet, the berries separated and came out as individual flakes. They roasted those flakes and served them. While the granola had not been a hit, the new flakes were. In fact, they were so popular that when patients left the sanitarium, they wrote back asking for the cereal flakes in the mail. In filling the orders, Will developed a food packaging enterprise.

Will went on to develop cornflakes. He tried to persuade his brother to sell their new foods to grocery stores, but John felt he would look bad as a doctor stooping to commercialism.

Marketing

In 1906, Will bought out the cereal patents and started the Kellogg Company. With clever marketing, it took only three years for annual sales of the corn flakes to exceed a million cases.

One of the early advertising techniques was the 1907 "wink at your grocer and get a free box Corn Flakes" campaign.

John continued in his medical profession. One of his patients was Charles William Post, a very successful businessman who suffered a nervous breakdown and very poor health. His health didn't really improve much, but he was most interested in the foods that John had provided him, particularly the coffee substitutes.

Always the businessman, Post saw an opportunity and opened his own spa. He determined to develop his own healthy foods. He mixed together an assortment of ground grains and steeped them to create a drink that would join the parade of healthy foods, and Postum was born.

Post went to work developing an assortment of cereals and went to work on an advertising campaign. His version of granula was the cereal we know today as Grape-nuts. Grape-nuts are more like Dr. Jackson's original cereal, but much easier on your teeth. He developed his own cornflakes and dubbed them "Elijah's Manna." When he renamed it Post Toasties, sales rocketed.

It is interesting to note that these men considered themselves purveyors of health foods, and considering their purposes to add fiber, their foods succeeded.

Although both Kellogg and Post were marketing geniuses, they may not have realized in the beginning just how thoroughly their products would catch on. Cold cereal is big business today. Nearly all households have at least one box of cereal in their cupboard and most have more. Cereal isn't just for breakfast any more. Many enjoy cereal several times each day in a bowl or as an ingredient in muffins, cookies and snack foods.

Nowadays, recipes abound using cold cereals in them and such treats as Rice Krispies Squares and bran muffins are practically household staples. Many people enjoy their cereal in handfuls taken straight from the box for munching. The latest marketing has made it easy with snack-sized cartons big enough to dip into by hand. Nevertheless, cold cereal straight from the bowl turns the trick for most of us.

It is ironic. The "health food" products that established these businesses have evolved full circle.

Cold cereals evolved from basic cornflakes to cereals using different grains. They changed shapes and textures as they were puffed, rounded and processed further. Manufacturers have added sugar and flavorings to make them more appealing. Special tidbits were added in the form of marshmallows, dried fruits, chocolate and so forth. Names such as Sugar Smacks and sugar frosted cereals were big on the market. They were aptly named because some of them contained as much as 56 percent sugar.

Marketing made cold cereal king. Giveaways were added, in the form of special offers or toys tucked into boxes. Packaging is colorful and appealing with such icons as Tony the Tiger, the Rice Krispies elves and others.

The public adopted them and as schedules became busier, and the cereals became more and more highly processed, they also became a more important part of the American diet -- especially among children.

The government stepped in and mandated that cereals must add vitamins to help offset the ones commonly missing from the diet.

Since that time, our society has become more health conscious and public pressure has been for more healthy foods. The cereal corporations have obligingly stepped forward to create healthier cereals with more fiber in them. We are back to where it started, but at perhaps a higher level.

Today's cereals include the sugary, low fiber varieties along with a wide assortment touted as high fiber cereals. The USDA mandate now means that you can see which of your choices has the highest fiber and vitamin content by checking the labels on the sides of the box.

As you eat your cereal for breakfast tomorrow, your choice of foods will be a big contrast to the breakfasts your ancestors ate 100 years ago.