Why American breakfast are the way they are?!

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Before #cereals became popular in America, people used to have hearty breakfasts similar to what they ate for dinner. However, they began experiencing frequent indigestion, and health experts blamed heavy breakfasts. In the 1870s, there was a push for lighter and healthier breakfast options, which led to the invention of cereal. James Caleb Jackson created a product called "granula," made from twice-baked flour pebbles. However, there was a problem – eating granula as it was could be tough on the teeth! To solve this, Jackson's mother, Lucretia Edgerton Jackson, came up with a brilliant idea. She recommended soaking the granula in milk or warm water to make it easier to eat and enjoy. Around the same time, a man named John Harvey Kellogg created his version of a cereal called "granula." He made a small change to the name and called it "granola." Kellogg's granola became popular, and people enjoyed eating it by soaking it in milk or warm water. As time passed, cereals became softer and more convenient to eat on their own. However, even today, many people still like to pour milk over their cereal when having breakfast.



In 1901, the cereal industry changed forever when Force Cereal introduced a mascot named Sunny Jim on their cereal box. At that time, having a mascot on cereal boxes was quite unusual, as people were not accustomed to characters like Captain Crunch or the Honey Smacks frog. However, Sunny Jim became incredibly successful, and other cereal brands took notice, leading to the development of their own mascots. In the 1930s, iconic cereal mascots like Snap, Crackle, and Pop, Tony the Tiger, Cap'n Crunch, and Toucan Sam were introduced and became just as successful, if not more so, than Sunny Jim. The popularity of cereal mascots got a significant boost in the 1960s with the introduction of color TVs in households across the country. Cereal companies used these charming characters, complete with elaborate backstories and entertaining plots, to market their cereals to kids, and it proved to be a highly effective tactic. However, there was one problem – many of the cereals marketed with cute cartoon mascots were loaded with sugar. Cereals like Super Sugar Crisp were coated with extra sugar to make them taste sweet. During the 1990s and early 2000s, public health organizations raised concerns about aggressive marketing targeting youngsters. In response, the Children's Television Act of 1990 limited the number of advertisements during kids' programming, and in 2006, several major companies pledged to use their characters to promote healthier cereal options. While Sunny Jim may not be as well-known today, his impact on the cereal industry paved the way for the beloved mascots we recognize today. Despite some challenges with sugary cereals in the past, efforts have been made to provide healthier choices for kids, something that we hope Sunny Jim would be proud of, whoever he may be.


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