began as a wacko religious-scientifi c health-food cure—because of
keen business sense and the fact that they are very convenient—
completely changed what Americans eat for breakfast. Kellogg only had one serious competitor in those days: another
quack running a sanitarium, Charles W. Post, who invented a cereal
called grape nuts, which was advertised as steadying the nerves and
making the blood red. Apparently because the barley malt used in it
converts the starch into glucose—or grape sugar as they then called
it—he settled on the name. In the end, of all strange ironies, health foods were subsumed
as industrial foods, mass produced, and marketed widely. They
became the very things they were designed to combat.Guerrini, Obesity and Depression.
Preece, Sins of the Flesh.
Spenser, The Heretics Feast.
Stuart, Bloodless Revolution.
The idea of what constitutes a natural diet changes from era to era. For some,
it might be a vegetarian meal or foods that are unprocessed; for others, it
could be raw food or paleo food. Every era constructs what is “natural”
based on its own preoccupations and anxieties. All make the claim that one
will feel better immediately. Put this claim to the test with the following
experiment. In academic circles, this is called an autoethnography. Choose a
modern diet that claims to be natural. Follow it strictly for three days, or for
a whole week if you have the patience. Record all of your experiences. Have
you noticed any changes in your body—with your digestion, energy level, or
sleep patterns? Did you learn anything about yourself and your regular diet
in the course of this experiment? Do you think that the experiment might
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