This Day in History: American medical doctor, nutritionist, inventor, health activist, eugenicist, and businessman John Harvey Kellogg was born on this day in 1852. Kellogg is best known today for the invention of the breakfast cereal corn flakes, originally intended to keep young men from masturbating. This creation of the modern breakfast cereal changed the American breakfast landscape forever.
Kellogg was the also director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. The sanitarium was founded by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It combined aspects of a European spa, a hydrotherapy institution, a hospital and a high-class hotel. Kellogg treated the rich and famous, as well as the poor who could not afford other hospitals. The Battle Creek Sanitarium was also the Vatican of the Seventh-day Adventist church. Kellogg was an Adventist up until he was disfellowshipped in 1907. Despite this action, Kellogg retained their beliefs and still ran the sanitarium up until his death in 1943.
John Harvey Kellogg was brilliant in some ways (he invented granola and peanut butter as well), but strange in others. "Kellogg devoted much of his energy to discouraging sexual activity of any kind, and was an especially ardent critic of masturbation, which he believed could cause 'cancer of the womb, urinary diseases, nocturnal emissions, impotence, epilepsy, insanity, and mental and physical debility' and, yes, even that old canard 'dimness of vision,' not to mention moral corruption." Source
Kellogg also believed that "self-abuse" caused epilepsy, acne, bad posture, stiff joints, infirmity, poor development, fickleness, and palpitations. In fact, Kellogg was so disgusted by sex that he never consummated his relationship with his wife. He equated fondness for spicy foods, round shoulders, and 'boldness' with signs of a chronic Onanist. He even encouraged parents to tie their children’s hands to their bedposts or to circumcise their teenage boys.
Kellogg was also an ardent eugenicist, but then many at the time were. He was also a passionate believer in racial segregation, even though he raised several black foster children.
"He espoused vegetarianism, prohibition, and abstinence, and he called any action outside of these things, 'self-pollution.' In sum, Kellogg was invested in total cleanliness — of the body and the spirit — and he concocted some bizarre ways of achieving it." Source
For instance, he was a big fan of yogurt. However, according to him, a daily pint of yogurt should be consumed orally, and half of it anally.
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