<P> Packaged breakfast cereals were considerably more convenient than a product that had to be cooked and as a result of this convenience (and clever marketing), they became popular . Battle Creek, Michigan was a center both of the Seventh - day Adventist Church and of innovation in the ready - to - eat cereal industry . And indeed, the church had a substantial impact on the development of cereal goods through the person of John Harvey Kellogg (1851--1943). Son of an Adventist factory owner in Battle Creek, Kellogg was encouraged by his church to train in medicine at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City in 1875 . After graduating, he became medical superintendent at the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, established in 1866 by the Adventists to offer their natural remedies for illness . Many wealthy industrialists came to Kellogg's sanitarium for recuperation and rejuvenation . They were accustomed to breakfasts of ham, eggs, sausages, fried potatoes, hot biscuits, hotcakes, and coffee . </P> <P> In Battle Creek they found fresh air, exercise, rest, "hydrotherapy", a strict vegetarian diet, and abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea . To supplement the center's vegetarian regimen, Kellogg experimented with granola . Soon afterwards he began to experiment with wheat, resulting in a lighter, flakier product . In 1891 he acquired a patent and then in 1895 he launched the Cornflakes brand, which overnight captured a national market . Soon there were forty rival manufacturers in the Battle Creek area . His brother William K. Kellogg (1860--1951) worked for him for many years until, in 1906, he broke away, bought the rights to Cornflakes, and set up the Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake Company . William Kellogg discarded the health food concept, opting for heavy advertising and commercial taste appeal . Later, his signature on every package became the company trademark . </P> <P> The second major innovator in the cereal industry was Charles W. Post, a salesman who was admitted to Kellogg's sanitarium as a patient in the late 1800s . While there, he grew deeply impressed with their all - grain diet . Upon his release, he began experimenting with grain products, beginning with an all - grain coffee substitute called Postum . In 1898 he introduced Grape - nuts, the concentrated cereal with a nutty flavor (containing neither grapes nor nuts). Good business sense, determination, and powerful advertising produced a multimillion - dollar fortune for Post in a few years . After his death, his company acquired the Jell - O company in 1925, Baker's chocolate in 1927, Maxwell House coffee in 1928, and Birdseye frozen foods in 1929 . In 1929, the company changed its name to General Foods . In 1985, Philip Morris Tobacco Company bought General Foods for $5.6 billion and merged it with its Kraft division . Because of Kellogg and Post, the city of Battle Creek, Michigan is nicknamed the "Cereal Capital of the World". </P> <P> In 1902 Force wheat flakes became the first ready - to - eat breakfast cereal introduced into the United Kingdom . The cereal, and the Sunny Jim character, achieved wide success in Britain, at its peak in 1930 selling 12.5 million packages in one year . In the 1930s, the first puffed cereal, Kix, went on the market . After World War II, the big breakfast cereal companies--now including General Mills, who entered the market in 1924 with Wheaties--increasingly started to target children . The flour was refined to remove fiber, which at the time was considered to undermine digestion and absorption of nutrients, and sugar was added to improve the flavor for children . The new breakfast cereals began to look starkly different from their ancestors . As one example, Kellogg's Sugar Smacks, created in 1953, had 56% sugar by weight . Different mascots were introduced, such as the Rice Krispies elves and later pop icons like Tony the Tiger and the Trix Rabbit . </P>

Who came up with putting milk in cereal