譯文大賞

圖片來源：Yanina Trekhleb, Unsplash

The Invention of Cereal 早餐麥片的問世

Before cereal represented our over-sugared, overprocessed relationship with food, Americans viewed cereal as a health food.

在早期，麥片還沒有像現在這樣添加過多的砂糖還有放其他雜七雜八的食品在裡面。所以美國人會認為麥片是一種健康的食品。

Its origins lie in health sanitariums run in the mid to late 1800s by some familiar names—like Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. It was a reform period when doctors were still often called quacks: Germ theory was just gaining prominence, and Dr. Kellogg’s favorite medical tool was a bath. His malady cures resembled spa treatments; “hydrotherapy” was popular at the time.

麥片的發源地是在1800年代晚期的療養院，當時麥片是由一些醫生所研製而成的，其中一位醫生的名字相信您們很常在超市裡的麥片包裝上見到過。沒錯，就是約翰哈維家樂氏醫生。不過在那個時候醫學還並不發達，所以當時大家都稱這些醫生為江湖郎中：那時候病菌學理論仍在起步當中，而家樂氏醫生的醫療工具也只是一個澡盆而已。他治療病人的方式就像是在做"spa”一樣；而在19世紀，這樣的"水療"相當地常見。

在19世紀那個醫學尚未發達的年代，大眾只把醫生視為是江湖郎中而已，圖片來源：JESHOOTS.COM, Unsplash

Kellogg and his peers believed they could improve Americans’ health by changing their diets. They believed that too much meat and too many spices had negative effects, and they preferred whole grains to white breads. A dietary reformer named Sylvester Graham invented the graham cracker in 1827. James Caleb Jackson, who did not allow red meat at his sanitarium, invented a cereal that he named “granula” in 1863. And James Kellogg developed granola or corn flakes in the 1890s.

家樂氏與他同事深信，透過改變美國人的飲食方式，是可以改善他們的健康狀況的。這是因為他們認為，攝取過多的肉品和過多調味料的食物對身體是有負面的影響，另外他們也主張全穀類(whole grains)比白麵包來得健康。格雷厄姆(Sylvester Graham)，是一名飲食改革者，他於1827年研發了史上第一款全麥餅乾；而詹姆士傑可森是一個不允許在他的療養院裡出現紅肉的醫生，也在1863年研製了一款名為"燕麥片(Granula)”的產品。而家樂氏醫生則是在1890年代發明了麥片。

The original versions were spartan affairs. They were not sweet, and people had to soak Jackson’s granula in milk just to make it edible. Critics called granula “wheat rocks.” Kellogg’s versions weren’t much better.

這些原始版本的麥片在當時並沒有像現在那樣的好入口，是因為他們本身並不甜。而像是人們在吃傑克森研發的穀麥棒時，人們必須要加入牛奶才可以食用。甚至在當時，有些比較惡毒的評論家因此還會稱這些麥片為"白色石頭"。而家樂氏版本的麥片口感也並沒有好到哪去。

一百多年前，人們在吃麥片的時候得加牛奶才可以吃，圖片來源：Daria Nepriakhina, Unsplash

But people wanted them. "The first year that the product was available saw more than 50 tons manufactured and sold in spite of primitive production facilities,” a Kellogg biographer writes of his corn flakes. “Soon cereal manufacturing companies sprang up all over the country.” By 1903, there were 100 cereal companies in Kellogg’s town of Battle Creek alone.

但很意外的，當時這些產品竟然大受好評。在家樂氏傳記裡正好提到，"儘管當時生產設備相當地原始，但是家樂氏麥片在第一年發行的銷量就超過了50噸" "過了不久，麥片生產商就遍及了美國全境" 在1903年以前，光是在巴特爾克里克(美國密西根州的一個城市)-這個家樂氏的發源地，就有多達100間專營麥片的公司。

It was a full on craze. Cereal was seen as a solution to the nation’s dyspepsia, author Abigail Carroll argues, and since it didn’t need to be cooked, it was a convenience food at a time when the Industrial Revolution meant people had less time and less access to a kitchen or farm.

麥片的問世讓人們陷入了搶購的風潮。一般認為，這是因為當時人們認為，麥片是改善消化不良這種文明病的最佳良藥。不過阿比果卡蘿對這個現象做了不同的解釋：麥片之所以在當時會暢銷，是因為它是一種無須花費太多心力跟時間就能夠食用的簡便食品(convience food)。對於當時正處於工業革命的時代下，或許麥片正是能夠解決家家戶戶進廚房時間變少的最好方式。

在工業革命的年代，人們的生活變得越來越繁忙，也因此像麥片這種能快速方便烹調的食品就越來越受歡迎。圖片來源：
Carlos T, Unsplash

The most successful food trends tend to combine science and morality, and the invention of cereal was no exception.

歷史上，許多的飲食風氣都是結合當代流行的科學及當時人們的道德觀念，而麥片的問世與後續的發展也並非例外。

Kellogg termed his lifestyle—more exercise, more baths, and simpler, blander foods—”biologic living”, and he gave lectures and wrote long tracts to promote it. He described the modern diet as unnatural and too diverse. “To eat biologically,” he wrote, “is simply to eat scientifically, to eat normally.” Like a paleo devotee, he promised a return to man’s natural diet. Except his answer was cereal.

家樂氏聲稱，"多運動、多洗澡、攝取簡單且較無調味的食品"這樣的生活方式為"原始生物般的生活"，此外家樂氏還開設課程並編寫教材來宣傳這種生活方式。他認為當代的飲食並非天然而且也太過於複雜了，於是他在教材裡寫道："要吃得像大自然的動物一樣其實並不難，只要吃得合乎科學觀念並吃得正常即可" 就像現在實行原始人飲食(paleo)一樣，他認為要吃得健康，得多吃全食(whole food,未經處理的食物)。但有個食品例外，那就是麥片。

麥片是家樂氏認為是最健康的飲食法中，唯一一種可食用的加工食品。圖片來源：THE 5TH, Unsplash

But Dr. Kellogg believed that eating biologically would solve much more than dyspepsia and indigestion. Like Dr. Graham with his graham cracker, Kellogg believed  Americans’ meat-centric diets led them to carnal sins. "Highly seasoned [meats], stimulating sauces... and dainty tidbits in endless variety,” wrote Kellogg, a vegetarian, “irritate [the] nerves and… react upon the sexual organs.”

家樂氏深信他推薦的飲食法所能改善的疾病，並不只有消花不良而已。跟格雷厄姆會研製全麥餅乾的原因相似，同樣地家樂氏也對美國常見的多肉飲食方式有著負面評價，他認為這種飲食法會增加人們的性慾(家樂氏的聖人模式又來了~~)。而在家樂氏的傳記也有寫道："調味過多的肉品、刺激性的調味料...跟那些花邊新聞一樣都會刺激神經且反映在生殖器官上"

In his mind, masturbation was a shameful act linked to bad health; and over-stimulating diets, diseases, and sexual acts formed an insidious cycle. Eating cereal would keep Americans from masturbating and desiring sex. "How many mothers, while teaching their children the principles of virtue in the nursery,” he wrote, “unwittingly stimulate their passions at the dinner table until vice becomes a physical necessity!" (He also recommended circumcision and tying children’s hands with rope to prevent masturbation and sexual urges.)

他認為手淫是一件與健康狀況不佳有關的羞恥行為，而且會與過度刺激性的飲食、疾病跟性行為有關，都會形成一種不好的循環。而在吃麥片後，是可以讓美國人減少對性方面的慾望。"不知道有多少的母親早在小朋友在幼稚園就讀的時候，就對他們耳提面命許多道德的觀念""不過也不知不覺地累積了一些有關性方面的邪念，讓這些邪惡的念頭變成了自己的生理需求"(他另外也建議小朋友應該要行割禮(切包皮)，然後家長要綁住小朋友的雙手，來防止他們手淫跟抑制性衝動)(編按：哎呦別鬧了~~客倌)

家樂氏醫生認為麥片可以抑制人們的性慾，防止他們做些壞壞的事情，圖片來源：
Markus Spiske, Unspalsh

John Harvey Kellogg was a true believer. During his lectures, he explained how people could make their own cereal at home. "You may say I am destroying the health food business here by giving these recipes,” he said at one talk. “But I am not after the business; I am after the reform."

家樂氏醫生簡直就是一位瘋狂的信眾。在他開設的課程裡，他教導人們如何在家自製麥片。他在一次上課的時候表示："您可能會覺得我這麼做是在破壞健康食品產業的發展，但本來我研發麥片的目的就不是要促進產業的發展，而是要改革整體的食品業生態"

但是到後來，事情的發展超出了家樂氏醫生所能想像的。

原文出處：How Breakfast Became a Thing
原文作者：Alex Mayyasi
撰文日期：2016.5.9