The Anti-Masturbation Cracker
A brief history of the Graham Cracker
Before they were used for S’mores, people ate Graham Crackers to stop masturbation and other sexual urges. Its inventor, Sylvester Graham, was a minister in the early 1800s with a strong disdain for lust.
Graham believed that consuming sugar, alcohol, and meat made people lustful, greedy, and sick. And his solution to this problem was a vegetarian diet devoid of spices and processed flour. “The blander, the better”, Graham probably thought.
Inventing the Graham Cracker
Graham then made an alternative to the regular sugared and processed cracker at the time. He combined bran, wheat germ, and unprocessed wheat flour to make his now world-famous Graham Crackers. Since the cracker had no sugar or spice, you can imagine how plain it tasted. But surprisingly, many at the time adopted his diet.
Graham and the Grahamites
Graham and his anti-masturbation diet grew a cult-like following, enough that he could build boarding-houses around to practice its beliefs.
