Today is the day, in 1894, that the humble corn flake was inflicted on an unsuspecting world. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the superintendent of a sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan and a Seventh Day Adventist provided a strict vegetarian regimen for his patients, which also included no alcohol, tobacco, or caffeine. The diet he imposed consisted entirely of bland foods, since he believed in sexual abstinence and believed that spicy or sweet foods would increase passions, while bland foods would have an anti-aphrodisiac property. He published ‘treatments’ for sexual desire in ‘Plain facts for old and young’, 1877. Although this first treatise was not hugely well received, he expanded upon his theories in the ever popular ‘Treatment for Self-Abuse and its Effects, Plain Facts for Old and Young, 1888’. His treatment advocated the circumcision of males (without anaesthetic) and the application of "pure carbolic acid" on the private parts of females. The corn flake began by accident when Dr. Kellogg and his brother, Will Keith Kellogg decided to force stale cooked wheat through rollers, hoping to obtain long sheets of the dough. To their surprise, what they got instead was flakes, which they toasted and served to their patients. This event occurred on approximately the April 14, 1894 and a patent for the product was registered on May 31 under the name Granose. The flakes of grain, served with milk, were a very popular food among the patients. In 1906, Will Keith Kellogg, decided to market the new food and set up a company, Kellogg’s, to do so. Corn flakes was the first product. Meanwhile, back in the sanatorium, Kellogg recommended corn flakes in combination with his other tried and tested anti-sexual ‘treatments’. Kellogg’s next business winning idea was Rice Krispies in 1929.
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