John Harvey Kellogg

John Harvey Kellogg
Kellogg, c. 1915
Born(1852-02-26)February 26, 1852
Tyrone, Michigan, US
DiedDecember 14, 1943(1943-12-14) (aged 91)
Battle Creek, Michigan, US
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Physician, nutritionist
Known for
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1879; died 1920)​
RelativesWill Keith Kellogg (brother)
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John Harvey Kellogg (February 26, 1852 – December 14, 1943) was an American businessman, inventor, physician,[1] and advocate of the Progressive Movement.[2] He was the director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, founded by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It combined aspects of a European spa, a hydrotherapy institution, a hospital and high-class hotel. Kellogg treated the rich and famous, as well as the poor who could not afford other hospitals. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, his "development of dry breakfast cereals was largely responsible for the creation of the flaked-cereal industry."[1]

An early proponent of the germ theory of disease, Kellogg was well ahead of his time in relating intestinal flora and the presence of bacteria in the intestines to health and disease. The sanitarium approached treatment in a holistic manner, actively promoting vegetarianism, nutrition, the use of yogurt enemas to clear "intestinal flora", exercise, sun-bathing, and hydrotherapy, as well as abstinence from smoking tobacco, drinking alcoholic beverages, and sexual activity. Kellogg dedicated the last 30 years of his life to promoting eugenics and segregation.[3] Kellogg was a major leader in progressive health reform, particularly in the second phase of the clean living movement.[4][5] He wrote extensively on science and health. His approach to "biologic living" combined scientific knowledge with Adventist beliefs, promoting health reform, and temperance.[6] Many of the vegetarian foods that Kellogg developed and offered his patients were publicly marketed: Kellogg's brother, Will Keith Kellogg, is best known today for the invention of the breakfast cereal corn flakes.[7][8]

Kellogg held liberal theological beliefs radically different from mainstream Nicene Christianity and emphasized what he saw as the importance of human reason over many aspects of traditional doctrinal authority. He strongly rejected fundamentalist and conservative notions of original sin, human depravity, and the atonement of Jesus, viewing the last in terms of "his exemplary life" on Earth rather than death.[2][9] Becoming a Seventh-day Adventist as their beliefs shifted towards Trinitarianism during the 1890s, Adventists were "unable to accommodate the essentially liberal understanding of Christianity" exhibited by Kellogg, viewing his theology as pantheistic and unorthodox.[2][9] Disagreements with other members of the SDA led to a major schism: he was disfellowshipped in 1907, but continued to follow many of their beliefs and directed the sanitarium until his death. Kellogg helped to establish the American Medical Missionary College in 1895.[10] Popular misconceptions have wrongly attributed various cultural practices, inventions, and historical events to Kellogg.[11][12]

  1. ^ a b Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (December 10, 2022). "John Harvey Kellogg: Encyclopædia Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 3, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Wilson, Brian (2014). Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and the Religion of Biologic Living. Indiana University Press. pp. 79, 80, 87, 91, 97, 105. ISBN 978-0-253-01455-9.
  3. ^ See Investigation of Race Betterment Foundation by the Attorney General of Michigan; also see, Ruth C. Engs, Progressive Era's Health Reform, 2003, Greenwood Pub. Co., Race Betterment National Conferences, p. 276
  4. ^ Engs, Ruth Clifford (2003). The progressive era's health reform movement. Westport, CT: Praeger. pp. 192–195. ISBN 978-0-275-97932-4. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  5. ^ Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013). Breakfast: a history. Lanham: AltaMira Press, a division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7591-2165-2.
  6. ^ Lee, Terry (September 2002). "Virtual violence in Fight Club: This is what transformation of masculine ego feels like". Journal of American & Comparative Cultures. 25 (3–4): 418–423. doi:10.1111/1542-734X.00059.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference obit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Mohaupt, Hillary (2017). "A Recipe for Good Health". Distillations. 3 (1): 12–15. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  9. ^ a b Höschele, Stefan (2022). Adventist Interchurch Relations: A Study in Ecumenics. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 229. ISBN 978-3-8470-1463-8.
  10. ^ "True When Tried". www.adventistreview.org. October 16, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  11. ^ McElroy, Sydnee; McElroy, Justin (2020). The Sawbones Book: The Hilarious, Horrifying Road to Modern Medicine. Weldon Owen Publishing. p. 211. ISBN 978-1-68188-651-0.
  12. ^ MacGuill, Dan (August 16, 2019). "Were Kellogg's Corn Flakes Created as an 'Anti-Masturbatory Morning Meal'?". Snopes. Retrieved July 3, 2022. According to Howard Markel, a professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan and author of a book on the Kellogg family, the initial impetus for the invention of corn flakes came from the need to create a breakfast food that countered indigestion, a common health complaint in later-19th-century America...