Breakfast Cereal

The origins of breakfast cereal can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century when religious leaders such as Sylvester Graham (1794–1851), father of the graham cracker, began advocating for dietary reforms. Advances in farming and milling technology allowed for the industrialization of food production, which in turn provoked a reaction against processed foods such as white bread and mass-produced meat. What began as a fringe belief gained currency as some Americans grew increasingly tired of their predominantly meat-and-simple-starch diets. Breakfast, before the advent of breakfast cereal, consisted of griddlecakes, beefsteak, potatoes, buckwheat breads, eggs, sausages, and porridges—a diet many considered to cause nationwide dyspepsia.