Interlude: Musings on Corn Flakes

 

I know, I know. I just gave you a breakfast post. I never include cereal in those; it's far too obvious. But I do eat cereal, and sometimes not just for breakfast. Here I am possibly overthinking corn flakes (solely in my brain; the bowl is just corn flakes and soy milk), but I guess I'm in the mood to muse.

Lately, it's been a struggle. You know this if you've been reading along with my intermittent spurts of despair. It's been a struggle for many of you, too. I'm in a transitional phase, and I genuinely don't know what comes next for me. Sometime in April I had a huge rug pulled out from under me and I've been floundering ever since. It doesn't help that the rugs under us keep disappearing, either. So that has meant more cereal meals than usual.

As a distraction, I started diving into Google Books to read old vegetarian magazines. (I know, I'm exciting.) The 19th century was different than ours, and also not so different. And it got me thinking about corn flakes. (I'm a historian, after all. It happens.)

Corn flakes are, of course, one of the original vegetarian staples, an invention of the Kellogg brothers, who brought us cold cereal itself. The Kelloggs had some weird ideas, but so did a lot of people in the early Western iterations of vegetarianism (which was often veganism, incidentally, before the term itself was coined). Today, some of what they say seems bizarre (like claims that vegetarianism will cure alcoholism), some of it is startling but practical (corn flakes don't carry food odors through the air like meaty breakfasts and will therefore attract fewer flies), some of it boggles the mind (they say you should toast your corn flakes in the oven and then eat them dry with fruit and possibly a splash of cream, but almost never mention milk), and some of it is surprisingly modern (like warnings about refined sugar and white flour not being that great for you in the end). Reading about all those early vegetarians again got me thinking about the joy of simple food. At times, I definitely make things too complicated.

But they made things complicated, too. It's not exactly simple to put corn flakes in the oven so your cereal is warm! Their breakfasts weren't just corn flakes, cream, and fruit; they'd also want you to have hot cocoa and muffins and potatoes and all sorts of other things alongside the cereal, to be fair to me. Although these sound like delightful combinations, I'm not prepared to make such meals in the morning day in and day out. I don't think I have the appetite to eat them, let alone the time and energy to cook them!

I hadn't eaten corn flakes since making my transition to veganism (as I noted in my post about vegan schnitzel a few days ago). It may not have just been the cholecalciferol in most brands. Corn flakes were once my favorite cereal, and I had what I had considered the perfect way to serve them--with whole milk and a bit of sugar. I thought that having loved the taste of that so much I wouldn't like them with plant-based milk. But time has passed, and now I don't find milk from a cow appealing at all. I also eat a lot less sugar, and I'm not inclined to put it in my cereal.

But I'd bought some vegan corn flakes for the schnitzel, and I usually like soy milk in my cereal these days. So I poured some soy milk over my corn flakes, skipped the sugar because the soy milk was sweetened anyway, took a bite, and enjoyed a whole new-to-me thing. It's simple, but somehow soothing in these challenging times. It's a memory in a way--the taste of the flakes themselves is still really familiar--without being overwhelming.

I am trying, still. There will be plenty of fun foods to share with you. And there is nothing remarkable about corn flakes, except that sometimes that's the remarkable thing. It can be truly remarkable that we keep going in the face of it all. It's remarkable to live in an age when a meal can be prepared as quickly as opening a box and pouring things in a bowl. And it's remarkable that people have been doing that for more than a century, many with the same motives I have for choosing what to eat.

So here's to cereal. Here's to those fascinating people who invented it well over a century ago to avoid meat. And here's to trying again tomorrow, to see what we can do to fascinate the 22nd century.

Comments

  1. I really enjoyed this post, thank you.

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  2. Great post because of its simplicity and we could all use that right now. We studied the Kellogg technique in massage therapy and also learned about Dr. Kellogg’s forward-thinking approach to health although it seems somewhat eccentric to us now. Today I was just not feeling like another salad so I ate a bowl of Raisin Bran with almond milk. I think the day filled me with dread at the thought of returning to the office next week. I’m an introvert but the thought of being around people again is giving me what psychologists are calling Re-Entry Anxiety. That pretty much sums it up.

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    1. I'm not looking forward to my commute and being around people all day every day, either. This is just a season of so many stressors! I'm grateful for cereal.

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  3. This is a wonderfully written post.
    My dad started eating cornflakes last year, and I have also rediscovered the simply joy of just a bowl of cornflakes with oat milk.

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    1. How did he avoid eating corn flakes all of his life? It may be my American perspective, but that's mind-boggling to me!

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    2. He had eaten them ages and ages ago. But then he was mostly eating weet bix for the last... I don't know... twenty years? So it was a rediscovery for him and now they are his cereal of choice.

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  4. My mom blames my cousin, but I've been adverse to milk since age 4. I never had milk and cereal. Love it dry or over yogurt. When I discovered plant milk 10 years ago I finally tried it and yuck LOL, why ruin a perfectly crunchy thing with milk. Guess I'm a no for life. Just wanted to share. My work has kept me on site all through the pandemic and we continue to mask up. It's been scary and hard but rewarding too. I hope the challenges lead to good things for you.

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    1. Thanks for telling me about your experience. I can understand not liking plant milk in cereal, though I'm used to it now. I think plant milk tends to make cereal soggier faster--at least, in my remembrance of it, if you get whole milk or 2%, the fat helped prevent the cereal from soaking up liquid as quickly. But it's okay; I have adjusted and it works for me.

      I was just the opposite of you. I drank so much milk--milk with every meal, more or less, right up until I went vegan. Milk was the most difficult thing to give up. I felt like all foods went with milk and all foods were less good without a glass of milk somehow. I didn't drink milk in restaurants, but I sometimes even took milk with me when I packed my lunch in graduate school. I was kind of known for it.

      I hope my transitions are good ones. The whole world seems murky and uncertain. Now that I'm vaccinated I go out to stores and things, and I do wear a mask for that still, though I don't technically have to. A lot of people in my area still do, too, and fortunately nobody really pressures people to take them off. I liked not getting colds and I hope I can keep not getting them!

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  5. I get it, I'm in the south and people go out of their way to not wear masks sometimes and shout ignorance and disdain for things that make sense but we have to deal with what we can. I'm hopeful still so glad to have that. It's so funny how are experiences are all shaped differently by what we like versus or know versus don't so I try to be considerate and remember we all come to conclusions based on our experiences. Good luck navigating the world, I know it will be a challenge!

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  6. I recently tried vegan sausage too to my delight after a lifetime of yuck so you never can tell what the future holds :)

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