history of soy yogurt, soy acidophilus milk and other ... - SoyInfo Center

host for the acidophilus bacteria which the doctor believed
needed to be implanted in the intestinal tract in order for it
to function perfectly. Shortly after Kellogg had developed
soy acidophilus milk, he chanced to read that Marie, smallest
of the Dionne quintuplets, was suffering from bowel
trouble. Immediately wiring the quints’ physician, Dr. A. R.
Dafoe, he announced he was sending him a supply of soy
acidophilus milk, which he was certain would cure Marie’s
problem. About ten days later he received a letter from Dafoe
which indicated that the soy acidophilus milk had indeed
corrected the situation and asked that a continuous supply be
sent to Callander, Ontario [Canada], for the fi ve little girls.”
In summarizing Dr. Kellogg’s major accomplishments,
the author notes (p. 243): “His introduction of peanut butter
added another widely accepted item to the American diet,
and it probably did more to provide a market for peanuts
than did the efforts of any other person, with the possible
exception of George Washington Carver. John Harvey’s
development of meatlike products from nuts and legumes
combined with wheat gluten has not only helped to enrich
the dietary of thousands of persons who for ethical, health,
or religious reasons choose to be vegetarians, but such highprotein
foods also hold possibilities for supplementing the
diet in countries where the supply of meat is insuffi cient to
provide enough protein for a rapidly expanding population.”
Concerning Granola: In the early 1860s, Dr. James
Caleb Jackson of Dansville, New York, developed Granula,
America’s fi rst successful cold breakfast cereal, made
solely from wheat. For 40 years, Dr. Jackson operated “Our
Home on the Hillside,” probably the most successful of the
“water-cure” institutions that blossomed in the 1850s. “In
an atmosphere approaching that of a European spa, Jackson
provided hydropathic treatments and a special diet for as
many as a thousand patients a year.” In about the 1870s, at
the Battle Creek Sanitarium, John Harvey Kellogg developed
a similar product, which he named Granola. It differed from
Jackson’s Granula in that it consisted of several grains, and
longer baking dextrinized the starch more thoroughly. “At
fi rst he apparently had no thought of selling it. He intended
it solely for sanitarium patients. Gradually, however, as
former patients and others interested in dietetic improvement
sent to the sanitarium for Granola, a small commercial
business developed, and Battle Creek thus took its fi rst
step toward becoming the ‘Breakfast Food Capital of the
World.’... Shortly after the production of Granola for patients
at the sanitarium began in 1877, Dr. Kellogg organized the
Sanitarium Food Company as a subsidiary of the Battle
Creek Sanitarium. Operated as an adjunct to the sanitarium
bakery, for more than a decade it marketed a variety of
oatmeal, graham, and fruit crackers and whole-grain cooked
cereals–all originally devised to provide variety in the
menu of sanitarium patients.” All products were made from
whole grains without artifi cial additives, and all underwent
prolonged high-temperature baking designed to dextrinize
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 111
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their starch. “By 1889 the Sanitarium Foods had become
popular enough to warrant the establishment of a separate
factory; Granola alone sold at the rate of two tons a week.”
But when Dr. Kellogg wanted to expand the business, other
sanitarium doctors refused to vote the funds. So Dr. Kellogg
launched the private Sanitas Food Company, relying heavily
on his younger brother, Will Keith, who had served as his
personal accountant and business manager since 1880. John
Harvey’s new fl aked cereals and vegetable meats became
the property of the Sanitas Company. In mid-1906 Dr.
Kellogg decided to change Sanitas’ corporate name to the
Kellogg Food Company. Then: “In the spring of 1921, to
avoid further diffi culties with Will Kellogg’s manufacturing
business [Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company], Dr.
Kellogg changed his concern’s name to the Battle Creek
Food Company.”
Concerning fl aked breakfast cereals: The fi rst ones were
developed from wheat jointly by Dr. J.H. Kellogg and his
brother Will, in about 1894. Dr. Kellogg named their fi rst
successful wheat fl akes product Granose Flakes, and on 31
May 1894 he applied for a U.S. patent on “Flaked cereal and
process for preparing same.” But in 1903 courts declared the
doctor’s patent invalid. Will Kellogg developed the product
into a great commercial success, in part by adding sugar
to the malt and corn combination from which he made the
fl akes. “The sugar greatly enhanced the cereal’s taste appeal,
and, as a result, the Corn Flakes business was booming by
late 1905.” Will convinced his brother, John Harvey, to
relinquish Sanitas’ rights to Corn Flakes, and in early 1906
Will established a separate Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake
Company with outside fi nancing. John Harvey agreed not
to take an active part in the new company’s management.
Six months later John Harvey decided to change Sanitas’
corporate name to the Kellogg Food Company. The new
company “began operating in July 1908, with Dr. Kellogg
owning all but two of its fi fteen thousand shares of stock.
Not only did the new company absorb the old Sanitas
Company, but it also leased the entire plant, machinery,
goodwill, and business of the Battle Creek Sanitarium Food
Company, thus bringing the manufacture and distribution of
all the food products with which Dr. Kellogg was associated
into one organization. By then John Harvey had decided that
it would be a good thing to put out all company products
under the trade name ‘Kellogg’s.’”
Will became very upset when Dr. Kellogg attached
the family name to his new food company and products.
Eventually a series of legal battles developed between the
two brothers over this and other products. Will Keith Kellogg
is discussed on pages 64, 118-20, 122, 144, 148, 192, 210-
18, 224, 237-38.
On pages 193-208 are 16 pages of excellent black-andwhite
photos from the life of Dr. Kellogg, starting with a
portrait of him and his wife in 1884.
Reprinted in 2006 by Review and Herald Publishing