Corn Flakes Origin

    Corn Flakes Invented to Prevent Masturbation

    The founder of Kellogg's Cereals (John Harvey Kellogg) was a doctor focusing on health and mental wellness. He began manufacturing corn cereals because he thought eating cereal for breakfast would curb people's desire to masturbate.

    In the late 19th century, the prudish Western society was awash with paranoia and hysteria about masturbation. It was believed that the practice of pleasuring oneself was not only sinful, but also had negative effects on one's health. Such myths included that it caused blindness, hairy hands, and stunted growth.

    John Harvey Kellogg, the founder of Kellogg's, was a physician who was a key proponent in the anti-masturbation crowd and was well-known for his proposed extreme measures to combat the habit.

    Some of these methods included electric shock treatment, chastity belts, straitjackets, circumcision (which to this day is performed routinely in the USA as a by-product of this), and even removal of the genitals.

    Kellogg also believed that the diet influenced the sex drive. Whilst working as superintendent at Michigan's Battle Creek Sanitarium, he experimented with dietary solutions. One such treat for the patients consisted of oatmeal and corn meal that had been baked into biscuits and ground into small pieces.

    Another of his innovations involved an enema machine that ran water through the bowel, which was then followed by a pint of yogurt - half through the mouth and half through the anus. Understandably, this idea didn't really catch on.

    Kellogg later went on to develop various other breakfast cereals, like Corn Flakes, as healthy, anti-masturbation breakfast meals. He partnered with his brother, William Kellogg, to mass-produce and market them to the public.

    In modern times, it has been clearly established that the myths around masturbation are far from the truth and were only a by-product of Victorian-era prudishness and health hysteria. Kellogg's staunchly held beliefs surrounding masturbation and its effects on mental and physical health have pretty much been dispelled as modern medical science and common sense prevailed.

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