The Fuss Over Corn Flakes

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day and what’s easier than making a bowl of cereal right? Well, the next time you’re pouring yourself some Kellogg’s Corn Flakes you might find it interesting to know their unique and supposed ‘origin story’. Read the facts, and you decide.

The mysteries of breakfast don’t really make it past 10am for most of us and it’s not something we guys typically ponder about, “where cereal comes from?” but recently Corn Flakes went viral with people seemingly finding an extreme and sudden curiosity. Basically, posts went around on social media platforms encouraging people to Google the history of Corn Flakes. And like with most things that trend, it’s the results of those searches, and the differences of opinions that really stirred the pot.

You could always Google “why were Kellogg’s Corn Flakes invented” yourself, but to cut a long story short, John Kellogg, a medical doctor, nutritionist, inventor, health activist, businessman and “anti-sex campaigner” considered that eating a completely bland, flavor’less’ diet would help reduce sexual urges. It seems harmless enough right? The theory is, in short, that Corn Flakes were created as a ‘sort of’ remedy for sexual desire. A morning breakfast that could limit arousal and urges that would eventually lead to self-pleasure aka masturbation.

But like with anything said on the internet, you have to take the story with a pinch of salt, or sugar in this case. So fact-checking resource Snopes.com decided to see what the real story was revealing that the ‘anti-masturbatory’ claims are mostly false – as Kellogg’s never specifically advertised the cereal in this way.

Kellogg’s also took a moment to set the record straight posting “The creation of Corn Flakes was part of J.H. Kellogg’s broader advocacy for a plain, bland diet.” With no mention of it being made-for-purpose to limit sexual urges.

Aside from Corn Flakes, Kellogg’s has quite the tasty lineup so we’ll stick to what we know until the science says otherwise.