Who created bircher muesli, the Swiss breakfast dish based on oats, fruit, and milk?

Maximilian Bircher-Benner created bircher muesli, the Swiss breakfast dish based on oats, fruit, and milk.

Bircher-Benner was a Swiss physician who served patients at his Lebensreform sanatorium in Zürich. Around 1900, he promoted a raw-food dish called Birchermüesli as part of his ideas about health and nutrition. The original preparation emphasized grated apple, oats, condensed milk, lemon juice, and nuts.

Modern muesli often contains rolled oats, dried fruit, seeds, and nuts, and may be served with milk or yogurt. It can differ substantially from the original recipe, which relied heavily on fresh apple and used oats in a relatively small proportion.

Muesli is not the same as granola. Granola is typically baked with sweeteners and fat, while traditional muesli is uncooked. The word “muesli” comes from Swiss German and is related to a diminutive meaning a small mixture or mush.