Were Kellogg's Corn Flakes Invented To Stop Masturbation? - Metro

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes may seem like a perfectly wholesome and innocent breakfast choice, but they have a rather bizarre origin story.

Rumour has it that the reason behind the recipe was to act as an ‘anti-masturbatory’ morning meal.

The unusual tale of the staple breakfast cereal has recently done the round on TikTok making thousands of people research its history.

Is there any truth in this, or is it all just hearsay?

Here’s all you need to know about why corn flakes were invented.

Why were corn flakes invented?

The popular cereal was first made back in 1894 by John Harvey Kellogg.

It was originally created as a healthy food for the patients of the sanitarium in which he worked, and its inception was functional: it was supposed to be healthy and deliberately bland.

It seems odd that someone should make deliberately tasteless food, but it was all part of an extreme diet – promoted by his church – aimed at suppressing passion.

He was a Seventh-day Adventist, a branch of Christianity that advocated a strict vegetarian diet devoid of alcohol, caffeine, or meat.

In addition, Kellogg was a fervent believer of abstinence and believed sex and masturbation were unhealthy and abnormal.

In his book, Plain Facts for Old and Young: Embracing the Natural History and Hygiene of Organic Life he described what he saw as the negative effects of masturbation.

He cited mood swings, bad posture, acne, baldness, stiff joints, palpitations as well as a taste for spicy food to be the side affects of the ‘double abominable’ crime.

To fight off any potential desire, he worked on ways people could curb sexual impulses including creating corn flakes, as well as a contraption that ran water through the bowel before following it with yogurt, delivered between the mouth and anus.

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Luckily, only the corn flakes caught on.

His original recipe contained no sugar, so would have no doubt been less palatable than today’s version.

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The more you know…

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