The Surprisingly Interesting History of Granola

You just won't believe the crazy events from which the cereal we now know as "granola" was born, but if you're into that sort of trivia, the long version of the story is here:

www.foodreference.com/html/artgranola.html

To sum it up briefly:  In the 1800's a man named Sylvester Graham, trying to link proper nutrition with moral living, developed "graham flour" (which later went on to fame in the form of graham crackers).  In 1863, Dr. James C. Jackson of New York used that very graham flour to create and market a health food he called "granula".  Then, 13 years later, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (yes, the Corn Flakes guy) was working as the director of a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan.  He came up with a nutritious, whole-grain breakfast food there and also called it "granula".  He was promptly sued by Dr. Jackson for using his name, so Mr. Kellogg changed the name of his product to "granola".  It never achieved commercial success.  But one of the patients at the sanitarium, Charles Post, enjoyed that tasty breakfast so much that in 1898 he built on the basic idea of the granula recipe to invent a product he called "Grape Nuts".  Granola might have fallen into obscurity forevermore, but was luckily rediscovered by the health food movement of the 1960's and put back out in the mainstream.  So granola is basically the product of the combined efforts of nutritionists, preachers, sanitarium staff/patients, and hippies.  Truly a great American invention!