In 1894, dr. X and his brother were probably laughed at as weirdo health freaks who put visitors at their hospital and health spa in Battle Creek, Michigan, through strange health regiments that included abstaining from meat, alcohol, tobacco, and even sex. One part of that regiment was eliminating caffeine by using a coffee substitute made of a type of granola. After cooking some wheat, the men were called away, as happens when you're running a busy sanatorium. When they came back, the wheat had become stale, but, ever the budget-conscious hippies, they decided to force it through the rollers anyway.

Instead of coming out in long sheets of dough, each wheat berry flattened and came out as a thin flake. The brothers baked the flakes, and, boom, a new breakfast cereal fad was born.

That wasn't the only cereal trend that was born at the dr. X sanatorium: Charles William Post, who later founded Postum Cereal Company (aka Post Cereals), was a student of dr. X. He developed his own line of products based on the cereal he ate at the clinic. The Post cereal company went on to make Honeycomb, Fruity Pebbles, Waffle Crisp, and lots of other sugary cereals the health-conscious dr. X probably would have shaken his head at.