Kellogg, John Harvey, 1852-1943

Battle Creek, Michigan physician, food scientist, founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

Battle Creek, Michigan physician, food scientist, founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium

Kellogg was born on Feb. 26, 1852 in Tyrone (Mich.) to John Preston and Anne Jeanette (Stanley) Kellogg. At age 24, he moved to Battle Creek with his family. After graduating from Bellevue Medical College in New York City in 1875, Kellogg returned to Battle Creek and became the medical superintendent of the Seventh-Day Adventists' Health Reform Institute, later the Battle Creek Sanitarium. He remained there until his death. A respected abdominal surgeon, Dr. Kellogg believed that illness was caused by poor eating habits. In 1895, Dr. Kellogg's search for perfect food led to his development of breakfast flakes made of wheat, called Granose. His brother, Will Keith, improved the idea, resulting in Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co., later W.K. Kellogg Company, and now the Kellogg Company. Dr. Kellogg also improved and/or created such foods as peanut butter and granola. He died on Dec. 14, 1943. The main collection of his papers are at the Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections.

Epithet: Dr. US entrepreneur and health reformer

John Harvey Kellogg, born February 26, 1852, earned worldwide acclaim in his lifetime as a health reformer and propagandist, and as head of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Kellogg is now best known in connection with the line of breakfast cereal products made by the company that bears his name. While John Harvey Kellogg conceived the notion of flaked corn as a healthful morning repast, it was his brother, Will Keith, who turned his hand to the development of the breakfast food company. John Harvey Kellogg was also a skilled surgeon, an editor, and scientist who saw himself as primarily an educator determined to focus public attention on preventive medicine as the means to maintain good health. The main thrust of Kellogg's good health message was that vegetarian diet, regular exercise, fresh air, and sunshine are the keys to a long and vigorous life. Kellogg was a testament to the efficacy of his principles, living to age ninety-one and working diligently until succumbing to pneumonia on December 14, 1943.

Kellogg's father, a convert to Seventh Day Adventism, moved his family to Battle Creek when John Harvey was age four; thus the young Kellogg grew up well versed in the health reform principles of the Adventists. Many of these tenets, especially regarding vegetarianism and temperance, were elements of Kellogg's mature thinking on healthful "biologic living." Kellogg, an 1875 graduate of Bellevue Hospital Medical College, brought a solid training in orthodox medicine to his health reform efforts. In this, he differed from most earlier health reformers, whose systems often lacked grounding in science. Kellogg made repeated trips to Europe to keep abreast of developments in medicine, surgery, and physiology in order to buttress the scientific foundations which supported his health teachings.

Upon completion of his medical training, Kellogg returned as medical superintendent of the Adventists' Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek. Kellogg's vigorous efforts as a promoter and publicist soon brought the Battle Creek Sanitarium (as the Institute was renamed in 1876) to national prominence as "a place where people learn to stay well." Kellogg used the Sanitarium as a testing ground for the application of his "Battle Creek idea" on the effect of diet, exercise, correct posture, fresh air, and rest on the health and fitness of individuals. The program did enhance health. Kellogg and the Sanitarium prospered, despite policy differences with the Seventh Day Adventists, a 1902 fire which destroyed the building, and receivership debt due to overbuilding, until the 1930s Depression cut down patronage. In good times, Kellogg traded heavily on the celebrity of the Sanitarium's clientele to sell his health reform ideas. In hard times, he relied on the strength of the science which girded his system to keep pushing health. Throughout his sixty-seven year association with the Sanitarium, Kellogg never wavered in his faith in the rectitude of the "Battle Creek idea."

Kellogg was a prolific author and had a ready venue of publication in Good Health, a magazine he edited for nearly seventy years. Kellogg incorporated many of the ideas which appeared first as articles in Good Health into nearly fifty books. Included among them are: Body in Health, Colon Hygiene, New Dietetics, Plain Facts about Sexual Life, Practical Manual of Health and Temperance, and Rational Hydrotherapy. These books manifest Kellogg's efforts to bring the new medical science to the general public. Kellogg also lectured from coast-to-coast touring his message before as large an audience as possible. Finally, Kellogg's dynamic personality attracted disciples to Battle Creek to study at the feet of the master of "rational" medicine; these disciples in turn propagated Kellogg's ideas that medical science pointed to adherence to a vegetarian regimen of moderation as the surest way to good health.

John Harvey Kellogg, born February 26, 1852, earned worldwide acclaim in his lifetime as a health reformer and propagandist, and as head of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Kellogg is now best known in connection with the line of breakfast cereal products made by the company that bears his name. While John Harvey Kellogg conceived the notion of flaked corn as a healthful morning repast, it was his brother, Will Keith, who turned his hand to the development of the breakfast food company. John Harvey Kellogg was also a skilled surgeon, an editor, and scientist who saw himself as primarily an educator determined to focus public attention on preventive medicine as the means to maintain good health. The main thrust of Kellogg's good health message was that vegetarian diet, regular exercise, fresh air, and sunshine are the keys to a long and vigorous life. Kellogg was a testament to the efficacy of his principles, living to age ninety-one and working diligently until succumbing to pneumonia on December 14, 1943.

Kellogg's father, a convert to Seventh Day Adventism, moved his family to Battle Creek when John Harvey was age four; thus the young Kellogg grew up well versed in the health reform principles of the Adventists. Many of these tenets, especially regarding vegetarianism and temperance, were elements of Kellogg's mature thinking on healthful "biologic living." Kellogg, an 1875 graduate of Bellevue Hospital Medical College, brought a solid training in orthodox medicine to his health reform efforts. In this, he differed from most earlier health reformers, whose systems often lacked grounding in science. Kellogg made repeated trips to Europe to keep abreast of developments in medicine, surgery, and physiology in order to buttress the scientific foundations which supported his health teachings.

Upon completion of his medical training, Kellogg returned as medical superintendent of the Adventists' Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek. Kellogg's vigorous efforts as a promoter and publicist soon brought the Battle Creek Sanitarium (as the Institute was renamed in 1876) to national prominence as "a place where people learn to stay well." Kellogg used the Sanitarium as a testing ground for the application of his "Battle Creek idea" on the effect of diet, exercise, correct posture, fresh air, and rest on the health and fitness of individuals. The program did enhance health. Kellogg and the Sanitarium prospered, despite policy differences with the Seventh Day Adventists, a 1902 fire which destroyed the building, and receivership debt due to overbuilding, until the 1930s Depression cut down patronage. In good times, Kellogg traded heavily on the celebrity of the Sanitarium's clientele to sell his health reform ideas. In hard times, he relied on the strength of the science which girded his system to keep pushing health. Throughout his sixty-seven year association with the Sanitarium, Kellogg never wavered in his faith in the rectitude of the "Battle Creek idea."

Kellogg was a prolific author and had a ready venue of publication in Good Health, a magazine he edited for nearly seventy years. Kellogg incorporated many of the ideas which appeared first as articles in Good Health into nearly fifty books. Included among them are: Body in Health, Colon Hygiene, New Dietetics, Plain Facts about Sexual Life, Practical Manual of Health and Temperance, and Rational Hydrotherapy . These books manifest Kellogg's efforts to bring the new medical science to the general public. Kellogg also lectured from coast-to-coast touring his message before as large an audience as possible. Finally, Kellogg's dynamic personality attracted disciples to Battle Creek to study at the feet of the master of "rational" medicine; these disciples in turn propagated Kellogg's ideas that medical science pointed to adherence to a vegetarian regimen of moderation as the surest way to good health.