Graham crackers in S’mores. Graham crackers and peanut butter, the perfect after-school snack. Teddy Grahams for toddlers. What could be more wholesome? Their origin was quite different from their current use. Let me tell you more.

Sylvester Graham (1794-1851) is often called the Father of Vegetarianism in America. Born in Connecticut, he was the youngest of 17 (!) children. His father died when he was 2 years old, his mother had mental health issues, and Sylvester was raised by relatives. He never quite finished his theology education and became an itinerant preacher.

As a young man, he began to work for the Philadelphia Temperance Society. Now, most Temperance groups focused on the evils and moral problems with alcohol; this one, however, paid more attention to the health problems with alcohol consumption. Graham met colleagues who believed in vegetarianism, and he began his own studies in physiology. This was when he developed the belief that meat, like alcohol, encouraged gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins. Consistent with his strict temperance beliefs, he felt any physical pleasure (especially lust) could cause personal harm. He believed humans were meant to live on vegetables and grains, and that diseases were the result of violating natural law. Additionally, he began to be concerned about additives in food. He viewed white bread with suspicion, as it sometimes contained chalk or plaster of Paris to whiten it, and brewer’s yeast for leavening (also associated with beer production and therefore suspect). As his beliefs evolved, he developed a rigid diet of well-cooked vegetables, water to drink, and a special whole grain bread. The recommended lifestyle included sleeping on hard beds, cold baths, and leaving windows open.

Graham believed his prescribed diet and lifestyle would reduce impure thoughts, decrease masturbation, which would of course, cut down on blindness and premature death. His book On Self-Pollution was a best-seller of the time. He followed up with Treatise on Bread Making, which included instructions for what people began to call Graham’s Bread. It was made with unbolted whole wheat bran flour, yeast, water, and salt. Later recipes added molasses, but it was far from the sweet crackers we are used to now.

His beliefs were quite popular, and groups of “Grahamites” sprang up in many communities in the Northeast. There were even Graham boarding houses, where people could be assured of getting the wholesome diet and hard bed Graham recommended.

Enter the 1830s cholera pandemic, sweeping across Asia and Europe. Americans were terrified it would cross the Atlantic and reach the US. It did, and there was a horrible cholera outbreak in New York City in 1832, killing over 3,500 people. Interestingly, people staying at Graham boarding houses fared better than the general population, and once the word got out, the popularity of his ideas took off. It’s not clear if/why they were safer, but I can guess that frequent bathing and boiling vegetables for hours before eating them, as he recommended, were great ways to kill any lurking cholera germs.

Graham’s influence grew, and he lectured widely. He developed a message that blended patriotism, theology, diet, lifestyle changes, and temperance. Think about the early 1800s; the ideas of preventive medicine and a healthy lifestyle were radical and new. People were, in general, deeply pessimistic about the ability of doctors to really help them when they were ill. This was a time before the adoption of the germ theory of disease, before antibiotics, and before antisepsis was widely practiced. Harsh purgatives and bitter patent medicines were the order of the day. This new idea of staying well and avoiding doctors was attractive.

Entrepreneurs began using his name and producing Graham flour, Graham bread, and Graham crackers. He didn’t invent or profit from those things himself; he only wrote books with recipes in them. As time went by, many companies made Graham products.

He wasn’t without his detractors, however. There were, in fact, Graham riots! He gave a Lecture to Mothers, which advocated men and women as equals, and men rioted. He only gave that lecture three times before he had to drop it. Butchers, objecting to his anti-meat stand, rioted at his lectures in Boston. They were supported by the commercial bakers, who also were not fond of him.

Graham had tuberculosis as a child, with a flare up as a young man. When he was 57 years old, he developed intractable diarrhea. It’s not clear what caused the diarrhea, but it could have been intestinal TB. After not improving with his own healthy diet and lifestyle, Graham yielded to the insistence of his physician and ate red meat to improve his circulation. After no improvement, he received an opium enema, also recommended by his physician. This was standard treatment of the time and widely used to treat pain and agitation. These enemas were not without risk (overdose, respiratory depression, and seizures), and indeed, Graham died shortly after he received the enema. His followers were astounded and disappointed that he had turned his back on his beliefs, and were sure that was the cause of his death. Many vegetarians distanced themselves from Graham, but nevertheless, his influence continued after his death. The story continues….

The Kellogg boys, John and Will, lived in Michigan. Twenty-five years after Graham’s death, John Kellogg, a physician, was a fierce proponent of the clean-living movement, strongly based on Graham’s teachings and the beliefs of the Seventh Day Adventists. In 1876, he became the medical director of the world-renowned health resort, Battle Creek Sanitarium, which was the premiere health destination in the US at the time. He advocated a bland vegetarian diet, temperance, cold water therapy, exercise, and abstinence from sexual activity (sound familiar?). Interestingly, he was also an early believer in the germ theory of disease and was ahead of his time, believing that the balance of intestinal flora was important to health. The test kitchen at the Battle Creek Sanitarium was run by his wife Ella. There they developed a process for making peanut butter (who knew?), healthy whole grain biscuits, and other special foods for their patients. Following the teachings of Graham, they worked on developing bland food to minimize excitement and suppress sexual arousal. In 1881, John Kellogg began to serve his invention, whole grain Granola. Then Corn Flakes were invented in 1894. There’s lots of disagreement over who did it and how it happened, but most stories say that Ella recommended rolling out wheatberry dough in a thin sheet, and John developed a machine to do that. However, he accidentally left some dough out overnight, not rolling it until the next day. Delicate flakes resulted, which baked into nice crispy flakes. Will was the one who recreated the process, so it was reproducible. They sold thousands of pounds of the wheatberry “Granose” but found that corn dough led to more popular flakes, which were first sold in 1898. Will proposed adding sugar to these corn flakes, which John adamantly refused to do. They split up, with Will forming the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company (the Kellogg’s you know today). John continued to direct the Sanitarium.

Meanwhile, CW Post was treated at the Battle Creek Sanitarium by Dr Kellogg. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as we know. Post opened his own sanitarium in the area, and founded his own dry goods company, Post Holdings, eventually manufacturing Grape-Nuts (like Granola), and Post Toastie (like corn flakes) cereal, in direct competition with Kellogg’s.

Today, Graham crackers continue to be popular, and the National Biscuit Company, now called Nabisco, sells over $300 million worth of Honey Maid Graham Crackers each year. Kellogg’s sells 32 million boxes of Corn Flakes and 132 million boxes of Frosted Flakes each year.

All this from Sylvester Graham’s healthy eating ideas. Quite an interesting legacy!