October 11, 2007

Part of a balanced breakfast

I'm sitting here eating my baggie of Honeycomb and thinking about cereal. According to wikipedia, the cereals we all know and love (even Lucky Charms and Cookie Crisp) date back to the mid-nineteenth century version of a health spa called the Battle Creek Sanitarium. There, John Harvey Kellogg first invented "Granola" to keep his patients -er, guests- um regular. It was when boiling wheat for his Granola biscuits that he accidentally created flakes and breakfast has never been the same.
Honeycomb is not a particular favorite, but it is one I remember from childhood, primarily because it was one of the "sugary" cereals I was allowed to have. The stringent dictate being "sugar cannot be the first ingredient." Of course that makes is so much healthier than Count Chocula, right?
Finally, I have to ask: Did anyone eat their morning cereal as "part of a balanced breakfast"? By adding juice, fruit and toast wouldn't the cereal itself be superfluous?

1 comment:

Jim Donahue said...

If you haven't read T.C. Boyle's "The Road to Wellville," do. It's about people who go to the sanitarium.

The movie kind of sucks, though.

(If you like that, I'd also recommend "East Is East.")