"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 19/09/17(you are what you eat, Kellogg)

I'm going to take a slightly different tack today in honor of Janet, because you were talking about super foods and clean eating ant whether of not that'a such a good idea. So I thought that I would look at the origin of the phrase "you are what you eat", which is a bit of a mantra these days, and probably very, very true as well. It's actually linked with a Kellogg's Corne Flakes, believe it or not.  Kellogg's Corne Flakes was founded as the Battle Creeck Toasted Corn Flakes Company. That was founded in 1906 by Will Keith and Lohn Harvey Kellogg, who is the most famous one, obviously. Thwy were very much influenced by Seventh-Day Adventist principles, if you like, and beliefs. They'd worked together at Battle Creek sanatorium in Michigan, hence the name. And that was a really popular health resort that had fairly radical ideas about how to keep healthy. So they promoted good diets, which I'll come to, but also frequent enemas to claense the body. But as far as their diet was concerned, it was low-fat, low-protein as well, at that point, and fibre-reach foods supplemented by grains. So nothing, I suppose, particularly radical there. But in addition to the diet, they also promoted various physiological therapies for the mind and body as well. So hydrotherapy, for example, electrotherapy also. There was an advert for Kellogg Food Company in 1909, which is what the Battle Creeck company eventually became. "Bringing the sanatorium direct to you, you can't have good health without good blood. You can't have good blood if you don't eat right food. Nature works through the stomach, you are what you eat. Get the stomach right and everything is right". And people who had stayed at the sanatorium and followed this diet actually went to found their own breakfast cereal companies, and also enclosed little booklets - little, secret tips as hoe to eat clean - in their own cereal boxes. Which all goes to show that clean eating and healthful living didn't start in this century. It all goes back all the way back to breakfast cereals in the early 1900s.