Info about Cereal
Cereal
Breakfast cereal was invented in an effort to get Americans to eat a better breakfast with more fiber. The first cereal was called Granula. It was called this because it was in the form of granules. The cereal consisted of heavy granules that were made from bran. The cereal could not be eaten without first soaking it overnight. It was not edible just by pouring milk over it.
In the 1860s, a health movement began and hospitals started serving thin baked dough to their patients. Two men, C.W. Post and W.K. Kellogg became interested in the current health movement. They believed they could make a successful business by making ready-to-eat cereal that was just as nutritious as and tastier than the baked bread. The men changed what many Americans ate for breakfast when they started their own companies.
Mr. Post invented something that he called Postum in 1865. It was a hot drink that was made of cereal. In two more years, he had created Grape Nuts, which is a cereal that everyone recognizes. The first cereal that was created by Mr. Kellogg was Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes. He created this familiar cereal in 1906. General Mills became the third largest producer of breakfast cereal in 1924 when they created Wheaties.
The first cereal that was made was simply just then flat flakes. The “puffing gun” was created by General mills in 1937. The gun heated grain like rice and corn until they blew up into little crunchy balls. Kix was the first puffed cereal on the market.
After Kix, there was a new method called shredding invented to make cereal. Shredded Wheat was the first cereal made with this method. About this time a process evolved that turned flakes into pellets and the result was cereals such as Captain Krunch.
By the 1950s, kids were recognized as customers. The flour was refined to remove the fiber because it was believed to decrease the absorption of nutrients and slow digestion. Sugar was added to the new cereals with some of them being as much as 56% sugar. There were prized hidden in the boxes so that children would desire them. Cartoon characters like the Trix Rabbit and Tony the Tiger came to life. Snap, Crackle, and Pop are the oldest of the cereal characters. When they were first created Snap was the only one of them. Crackle and Pop were added in the following years.
Today there are many makers of breakfast cereal. The characters are too numerous to mention. Prizes are not found in the boxes as often as in the past. It is not necessary to persuade the children to want the cereal. They are already hooked.
Trends are now leaning toward promoting cereals with less sugar and more fiber. We now know that fiber is necessary for our digestive systems to work properly. More and more of the popular kids' cereals are advertising that they now have lower sugar content.
Breakfast cereal began in the 19th century and has been increasingly popular ever since. You can find it in practically every home in the United States.