Who was doctor Harvey Kellog and what were some of his goofy ideas?

Question

who was doctor Harvey Kellog and what were some of his goofy ideas?

Answer 1

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (February 26, 1852 - December 14, 1943) was an American medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan who ran a sanitarium using holistic methods, with a particular focus on nutrition, enemas and exercise. Kellogg was an advocate of vegetarianism, and is best known for the invention of the corn flake breakfast cereal with his brother.

Kellogg gained fame while working at the Battle Creek Sanitarium which ran on Seventh-day Adventist Church principles. They believed in a vegetarian diet and a regimen of exercise. Kellogg was against surgery, especially to remove parts of the intestines. In the Preface to Autointoxication, he says that "it is a notorious fact that most of those who have submitted themselves to shortcircuiting and even more radical surgical operations for relief of intestinal stasis, sooner or later, usually within a year after the operation, find themselves suffering from the same distressing symptoms for the relief of which they consented to submit themselves to a mutilating surgical procedure."

Kellogg believed that most disease is alleviated by a change in intestinal flora: bacteria that is in the intestines can either help or hinder the body. "Bad" bacteria produce toxins during the digestion of protein that poison the blood. Poor diet also favors harmful bacteria that can then infect other tissues in the body. The intestinal flora is changed by the diet of the individual, and is changed for the better, generally, with a well-balanced vegetarian diet that favors low-protein, laxative and high-fiber foods. This natural change in flora can be sped by enemas seeded with favorable bacteria, or by various regimens of specific foods designed to heal specific ailments.

With his brother, Will Keith Kellogg, they started the Sanitas Food Company to produce their whole grain cereals around 1897. A standard breakfast then was eggs and meat eaten by the well off. The poor ate porridge, farina, gruel, and other boiled grains. John and Will eventually argued over the addition of sugar to the cereals and in 1906 Will started his own company called the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, which eventually became the Kellogg Company. They never spoke to each other again. John then formed the Battle Creek Food Company to develop and market soy products. John did not invent the concept of the dry breakfast cereal. That honor belongs to Dr. James Caleb Jackson who created the first dry breakfast cereal in 1863, which he called Granula. A patient of John's, Charles William Post would eventually start his own dry cereal company selling a rival brand of corn flakes.

Kellogg was a zealous campaigner against masturbation, recommending extreme methods. In his Treatment for Self-Abuse and its Effects he wrote:

A remedy for masturbation which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision. The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic, as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment. In females, the author has found the application of pure carbolic acid to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement.

Believing that masturbation was a sensual sin of the flesh, self-abuse, and an obsessive habit common to adolescent males and others, he advocated exposing the sensitive glans, which during masturbation would be subject to friction. In addition, the removal of the protective f******n would further reduce sensory pleasures from the habit. Reducing the sensory pleasure, it was felt, would also reduce boys' rebelliousness to the constraints of Adventism. He also claimed that masturbation was a primary cause of acne, among other things, including atrophy of the testes