On this day in vegan history · December 14, 1943
Kellogg Dies, His Meatless Foods Don't
The doctor who built a health empire on oatmeal, cold showers, and no meat died at 91, having already invented the plant-based breakfast and, decades before anyone used the term, the veggie burger.
The facts
- Died
- December 14, 1943, in Battle Creek, Michigan, at age 91
- Sanitarium tenure
- Director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium from October 1876 until his death
- Nuttose
- Introduced in 1896, made primarily from peanuts
- Protose
- Patented March 19, 1901, a blend of nuts and grain cereals
John Harvey Kellogg died in Battle Creek, Michigan, on December 14, 1943, at the age of 91. He had run the Battle Creek Sanitarium since October 1876, prescribing a strict vegetarian regime to the thousands of patients who passed through its wards, and he spent decades trying to invent foods that made the diet bearable. In 1896 he introduced Nuttose, a peanut-based product he sold as a stand-in for meat, and in 1901 he patented Protose, a blend of nuts and grain cereals. Along the way he, his wife Ella, and his brother Will Keith Kellogg developed the flaked cereal patented in 1896 that became corn flakes. Kellogg's ideas ranged from sound nutrition science to genuinely strange obsessions, but the meatless breakfast he pushed on a skeptical public outlasted him.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
-
the first commercially produced alternative to meat
Wikipedia's description of Nuttose, which Kellogg introduced in 1896
Source: Wikipedia -
vegetable substitute for meat
the U.S. patent granted to Kellogg on March 19, 1901, for Protose
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
Nuttose and Protose were the first commercially produced alternative to meat sold in the United States, decades before anyone said 'plant-based.' Every modern nut-and-grain veggie burger is working from a recipe Kellogg wrote first.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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