John Harvey Kellogg: Creepy Cereal Advocate

What a Creep
John Harvey Kellogg
Season 28, Episode 2

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes was the boring cereal in my Kellogg’s cereal variety pack, but it’s the one that started them all. And one of the men behind that cereal was John Harvey Kellogg.
John Harvey Kellogg championed nutrition and a holistic approach to health. But he was also a eugenicist, which, if you don’t know, is the inaccurate theory that humans can be improved through selective breeding of populations. He also advocated for forced sterilization of anyone he deemed unintelligent or immoral. Oh, and he launched a really messed anti-masturbation campaign that saw the genitals of young boys and girls mutilated.
John Harvey Kellogg: What a creep. 

Sources for this episode

• All That’s Interesting
• Battle Creek Enquirer 
• Britannica
• Chowhound
• Forbes
• The Guardian
• History
• History Hit
• History Today
• New York Times
• The School of Public Health
• Wikipedia: Carrie Buck
• Wikipedia: John Harvey Kellogg

Trigger warnings: Racism, sexual assault, and cereal puns
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