It will probably surprise you to learn that the term granola was coined way back in the 1870s by one Dr. John Kellogg, late of Battle Creek, Michigan, where he ran a famous health sanitarium to which patrons flocked in pursuit of health and wellness. Among his many prescient recommendations was one that should be familiar to you, dear reader — that food be prepared the old-fashioned way, using whole grains instead of stripped ones like white flour or corn syrup.

Loaves of whole-grain bread were baked in large ovens on the grounds of the sanitarium, and it did not take long for Dr. Kellogg to realize that he could be recycling the crumbs that fell to the bottom of the ovens. A cost-saving measure from the start, he decided to place the collected crumbs into bowls, and then serve them for breakfast. He called this invention granula. When Dr. Kellogg learned, however, that granula had already been trademarked, he changed the name slightly to granola. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, these words are most likely related to grain and granule, as well as the related granular, granulated, and so on.

Granola fell out of use for many decades, only to resurface around 1970, when processed breakfast food manufacturers began using the term for a broad variety of “breakfast cereals” and “snack bars” that contained rolled oats, nuts, dried fruit, and so on. The powerful association of the term granola with whole grains, good nutrition, and good health made it particularly attractive to the processed edibles industry.

Today hundreds (if not thousands) of products contain the word granola in their title. Many, if not most, consist of long lists of hard-to-pronounce ingredients whose end product would be virtually impossible to reproduce in our own kitchens. These are all clues that such products are not the same as food.

Generally speaking, the vast majority of granola products are so high in sugar that it would be more accurate to consider them desserts. What do I recommend then? If you love granola, I recommend searching for a brand that does not contain sugar in the first five ingredients. You could also consider adjusting your portion size by changing the way you use it — sprinkling a tablespoonful or two on your plain yogurt or blueberries, for example, instead of eating a whole bowlful. Or you could look for a recipe on line, like this one at Chowhound, or this one at Family Style Food, or this one from Melissa Clark at NYT (though I recommend reducing the brown sugar and maple syrup to no more than 1/4 cup each) and try your hand at making a batch at home.

Hearty appetite!