As the original breakfast cereal celebrated its 100th birthday, experts from Switzerland’s health authority staged a muesli festival to extol its traditional virtues.
Swiss doctor Maximilian Bircher-Benner presented the rolled oats and fruit mixture to a health committee in 1900. While this moment is often heralded as the start of healthy eating, muesli only really triumphed on the consumer market when sugar and other unhealthy ingredients were added. The German Consumer Information Service issued a public health warning against these breakfast cereals, which stated: “These products are not muesli, but rather desserts.”
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This week, the message is that more traditional muesli is the way forward. Prof. Groneuer, from Munster College, Germany, explained that “it is full of vitamins and the main nutrients are present in fairly good proportion.” He also said it does not make us fat, and could help prevent cancer and heart disease. With these benefits, health experts are hoping that the scenic alpine boxes will be on our breakfast table for a long time still to come.
