Breakfast cereals have a praiseworthy origin. They were invented by health spa owners to offer an alternative to the typical breakfast of the time: eggs, coffee, and meat, usually in the form of beef, bacon, or sausage. Initially, breakfast cereal provided an economical use for the crumbs that fell to the bottom of the bread ovens at the health spas. The word “cereal” itself means, simply, grain, and derives from Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. We’ve traveled a long way from breakfast cereal’s origin, but unfortunately it’s been in the wrong direction.

The first mass-produced cereal, granula, was a product similar to what today we would call Grape–nuts. The name granula was derived from “granules” or “grains.” Granula nuggets were hard, and they needed an overnight soak to make them palatable. Its name, Grape-nuts, is derived from the fact that these early cereals, which were sweetened with maltose–also known as grape sugar,–had a vaguely nut-like flavor.  For several decades, a small number of whole-grain cereals similar to this one predominated. Continue reading →