The Naming of "Grape-Nuts": Separating the Truths from the Sordid, Sordid Lies

My boyfriend really likes Grape-Nuts. His two favourite cereals (if I'm not mistaken) are Lucky Charms and Grape-Nuts. I myself think that they taste like little crunchy, indigestible bits of cardboard, but my dislike of them is nothing personal. Really. I mean, I've met some very nice grape-nuts who are fine, upstanding, decent people. Some of the most intelligent individals I've ever known are grape-nuts. But taken as a whole, the Grape-Nuts as a population, I find utterly distasteful.


Once we were wondering how Grape-Nuts got its name, and of course, we looked to the internet to sate our curiosity, and found our answer on the Kraft Foods website.

The Story According to Kraft
One of the first ready-to-eat cereal products ever made available to the public, Grape-Nuts was first introduced in 1897. Made of wheat and malted barley, Grape-Nuts was so named because its inventor, Charles William Post, said that grape sugar was formed during the baking process and described the cereal as having a nutty flavor. Post was a pioneer in introducing and making popular cereal, a food product that today has become a standard breakfast staple.

HOWEVER, I've just come across a different story in a cookbook.

The Story According to this Cookbook
Q. Why is a cereal that contains neither grapes nor nuts called Grape-Nuts?
A. Because during his stay at John Kellogg's popular Battle Creek Sanitorium (perhaps America's first health spa), Charles Post observed that people would pay for 'health foods.' He first tried to market his cereal as Elijah's Manna, with predictable results. Then Post renamed his product to exploit the fact that most people thinking "grapes" and "nuts" also think "wholesome, nutritious." It worked, and Mr. Post's motto became, "All I have I owe to advertising."

The Charles Post ("Charlie") of the first account: a down-home, guileless, disingenuous pioneering enterpreneur. And the Charles Post ("Evil Charles") of the second account? A conniving and manipulative twister of truths and deceiver of the good cereal-eating citizens of America.

We are left with one baffling and all-important question. Possibly the most important question in the universe. Who exactly WAS Charles Post?