Fruit scones. If you were to go to a coffee shop, you might order a lemon blueberry, cherry, cranberry orange, lemon poppy seed, or a white chocolate peppermint latte scone. If it wasn’t for something that happened in 1964, you would buy your fruit scones in the grocery store along with other breakfast foods, wrapped in a package and boxed.
“It all started when one of Kellogg’s biggest competitors, Post Consumer Brands, trumpeted to the press that it had created an innovative new breakfast item: a shelf-stable, fruit-filled, handheld toaster pastry called “Country Squares.” It sounded like the ultimate grab-and-go convenience food. Anticipation ran high.”1
The announcement was way too early because Post Consumer Brands wasn’t ready to go into production. Their eager presentation, though, sparked Kellogg’s into developing a competitive product.
“Kellogg chairman William E. LaMothe, a.k.a Bill, had a vision. A vision of transforming a delicious breakfast into a toaster-ready rectangle that could go anywhere. So he hit up “Doc” Joe Thompson, and his kitchen crew to create an ingenious hack on toast and jam.”2 What should we call it? Fruit Scone! Yes, the original name of the Pop Tart was Fruit Scones, and it didn’t take Kellogg’s long to realize that this was a terrible name.
Kellogg’s made a play on words with the pop culture movement and decided to call their product Pop Tarts. On this day in 1964, the first Pop Tarts were rolled out in Cleveland, OH with four flavors: Strawberry, Blueberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon & Apple-Currant. According to the Pop Tarts website, “Since literally no one has ever seen a currant, we dropped that flavor. Years later it came back as the fan favorite Apple Pop-Tarts.”3
What makes a Pop Tart especially tasty is the frosting. This didn’t get added until 1967 as Kellogg’s worked out the formula for a frosting that wouldn’t smear all over the packaging. In 1968, sprinkles were added. By 1973, 19 flavors were available! In 2004, Pop Tarts adopted the tagline, “Crazy Good!” And innovations are still taking place as Kellogg’s continues to manufacture these breakfast treats.
As a kid – and young adult – I absolutely LOVED Pop Tarts. Strawberry and brown sugar cinnamon were my favorites. Now, mind you, these are not good for you. Dr. Howard Markel, an American physician… jokes that he “objects” to eating Pop-Tarts on every level, adding, “As a pediatrician, I still have to say, even in 1964, what were they thinking?”
“Here’s what happens when you eat a Pop-Tart, Frankel says: “It raises your blood glucose to astronomical highs, which then makes your pancreas squeeze out a ton of insulin. This bottoms you out so you’re hungry for another Pop-Tart, which you have, then you get fat, and you get diabetes.”4
Every once in a while, I get a weird craving for a Pop Tart, especially if we are walking down the cereal aisle. I remember how tasty they were. My blood glucose rises just thinking about it. But, on those extremely rare occasions when I thought, “Why not?” I quickly got my answer.
First, things that tasted good as a kid don’t taste so great anymore. Even the first bite of a Pop Tart doesn’t taste good. Second, one bite and it’s instant heartburn. That’s not fun! So, I think I’ve finally learned that this is a part of the past and it needs to STAY in the past. No more Pop Tarts for me.
Now, follow me on this. We are getting ready to leap to a pretty good spiritual and Scriptural application. Galatians 5:16-17 says, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (17) For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”
Walking in flesh is the childish days of our unsaved life when we feasted on the Pop Tarts of the world and other things that were not good for us. Walking in the Spirit are the days of salvation, especially that Christian walk that is maturing, where we are hungry for the good things of God. But, that flesh lusts against the Spirit and the struggle takes place. Paul faced this battle.
“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. (15) For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. (16) If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. (17) Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. (18) For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not… I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. (22) For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: (23) But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. (24) O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:14-18, 21-24)
Do you ever find yourself going back for one of those worldly Pop Tarts and regretting the first bite you take? Old habits, old ways must be broken and stopped. Today, rejoice in the truth of Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”
1https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pop-tarts-debut
2https://www.poptarts.com/en_US/our-story.html
3Ibid.
4https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/the-contentious-history-of-the-pop-tart-180984270/
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.