It was a sex crack-er-down.
Individuals are shocked to find the sex-fueled history of graham crackers because the salacious backstory resurfaces online.
“I want you all to go Google why graham crackers were invented,” one surprised person wrote on X. “Apparently this went around on Twitter just a few years ago but I’m just now seeing this for the primary time.”
Sharing an easy summary of the story, one other added: “Just discovered Graham Crackers were invented by a Presbyterian minister to cure licentiousness. A whole lot of y’all need to start out eating Graham Crackers.”
Graham crackers were invented by Sylvester Graham, a puritanical Nineteenth-century minister, in an try and tamper the “carnal desire” for sex he believed caused the whole lot from headaches to insanity, experts and historians previously told The Post.
But as an alternative of simply preaching abstinence, Graham created something else entirely in hopes of quenching people’s sexual appetite and “curing” them: a bland, cracker-like snack.
Graham rose to prominence within the Presbyterian Church but was at all times obsessive about health after a childhood spent as a frail and sickly child.
He studied the human body at Amherst College — though he dropped out after failing to make friends — and shortly realized that his life’s mission was to forestall the evils of sex, indulgence and what he believed to be the unhealthy effects of lust.
His crusade was his most fervent cause as he claimed the act could “inflame the brain greater than natural arousal” and even result in insanity.
“He was on a powerful anti-masturbation crusade. He said, ‘When you’re eating meat, you’re acting like an animal and you must avoid those varieties of primal instincts — just like the urge to have sex,’” said Adam D. Shprintzen, who wrote in regards to the cracker’s odd origin story in his book, “The Vegetarian Crusade: The Rise of an American Reform Movement, 1817-1921.”
He believed food played a critical role in tempering sexual desires and argued that food like meat, coffee and spices excited carnal urges, so he began promoting an unexciting whole-grain weight loss plan to “purify” the body.
The crusader even launched one in all America’s first vegetarian movements, urging followers to swear off meat entirely, believing that healthful, easy food would foster a healthy, chaste life.
In 1829, Graham took his mission further and invented what would later develop into the graham cracker.
The primary graham cracker was a tasteless, dry, whole-wheat biscuit manufactured from finely ground, unbleached wheat flour and coarsely ground wheat bran.
The graham cracker’s transformation into the sweet, honeyed snack we all know today happened after Nabisco acquired the brand within the Nineties.
They added sugar and cinnamon, and the dry, unappetizing cracker was reborn as a more palatable snack, paving the best way for its eventual role as the inspiration for s’mores.
Graham believed the unique cracker’s blandness would keep sensual urges at bay, particularly in adolescent boys.
“He spoke about how the cracker could help suppress sexual desire, particularly in adolescent boys. And he gained some hard-core followers,” said Shprintzen, who can also be a professor of history at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Graham’s philosophy spread within the 1830s, giving rise to the so-called “Graham Weight loss program,” a regime of tasteless, whole-grain bread and starches, with the whole lot flavorful — meat, coffee, alcohol and tobacco— strictly forbidden.
Getty Images
His followers, called Grahamites, were fervent of their belief that his weight loss plan could cure every kind of ailments from depression to nervousness, and a few even claimed it improved their sex lives — not by encouraging lust, but by suppressing it.
“As warped as he was, from a medical standpoint, he was ahead of his game in some ways. We all know now that weight loss plan is connected to physical health, and an excessive amount of meat and alcohol isn’t good for us,” Shprintzen said.
His lectures on sex were so uncomfortable for some that indignant mobs of butchers and bakers once protested his teachings.
They claimed his health movement was bad for business, and men found his frank discussions of sexual repression especially unsettling — particularly when women were present.
“Wow. It is a wild little rabbit hole. After all, it appears to be somewhat more complicated than that. Graham Crackers appear to have been an element of a balanced total weight loss plan intended to cut back sexual urges. And it needs to be noted that that weight loss plan was also vegetarian,” a fascinated Tweeter wrote after learning in regards to the treat’s history, with one other person joking that the brown biscuit can have led to unexpected consequences.
“I loved eating them as a child, perhaps that influenced me,” they wrote.
It was a sex crack-er-down.
Individuals are shocked to find the sex-fueled history of graham crackers because the salacious backstory resurfaces online.
“I want you all to go Google why graham crackers were invented,” one surprised person wrote on X. “Apparently this went around on Twitter just a few years ago but I’m just now seeing this for the primary time.”
Sharing an easy summary of the story, one other added: “Just discovered Graham Crackers were invented by a Presbyterian minister to cure licentiousness. A whole lot of y’all need to start out eating Graham Crackers.”
Graham crackers were invented by Sylvester Graham, a puritanical Nineteenth-century minister, in an try and tamper the “carnal desire” for sex he believed caused the whole lot from headaches to insanity, experts and historians previously told The Post.
But as an alternative of simply preaching abstinence, Graham created something else entirely in hopes of quenching people’s sexual appetite and “curing” them: a bland, cracker-like snack.
Graham rose to prominence within the Presbyterian Church but was at all times obsessive about health after a childhood spent as a frail and sickly child.
He studied the human body at Amherst College — though he dropped out after failing to make friends — and shortly realized that his life’s mission was to forestall the evils of sex, indulgence and what he believed to be the unhealthy effects of lust.
His crusade was his most fervent cause as he claimed the act could “inflame the brain greater than natural arousal” and even result in insanity.
“He was on a powerful anti-masturbation crusade. He said, ‘When you’re eating meat, you’re acting like an animal and you must avoid those varieties of primal instincts — just like the urge to have sex,’” said Adam D. Shprintzen, who wrote in regards to the cracker’s odd origin story in his book, “The Vegetarian Crusade: The Rise of an American Reform Movement, 1817-1921.”
He believed food played a critical role in tempering sexual desires and argued that food like meat, coffee and spices excited carnal urges, so he began promoting an unexciting whole-grain weight loss plan to “purify” the body.
The crusader even launched one in all America’s first vegetarian movements, urging followers to swear off meat entirely, believing that healthful, easy food would foster a healthy, chaste life.
In 1829, Graham took his mission further and invented what would later develop into the graham cracker.
The primary graham cracker was a tasteless, dry, whole-wheat biscuit manufactured from finely ground, unbleached wheat flour and coarsely ground wheat bran.
The graham cracker’s transformation into the sweet, honeyed snack we all know today happened after Nabisco acquired the brand within the Nineties.
They added sugar and cinnamon, and the dry, unappetizing cracker was reborn as a more palatable snack, paving the best way for its eventual role as the inspiration for s’mores.
Graham believed the unique cracker’s blandness would keep sensual urges at bay, particularly in adolescent boys.
“He spoke about how the cracker could help suppress sexual desire, particularly in adolescent boys. And he gained some hard-core followers,” said Shprintzen, who can also be a professor of history at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Graham’s philosophy spread within the 1830s, giving rise to the so-called “Graham Weight loss program,” a regime of tasteless, whole-grain bread and starches, with the whole lot flavorful — meat, coffee, alcohol and tobacco— strictly forbidden.
Getty Images
His followers, called Grahamites, were fervent of their belief that his weight loss plan could cure every kind of ailments from depression to nervousness, and a few even claimed it improved their sex lives — not by encouraging lust, but by suppressing it.
“As warped as he was, from a medical standpoint, he was ahead of his game in some ways. We all know now that weight loss plan is connected to physical health, and an excessive amount of meat and alcohol isn’t good for us,” Shprintzen said.
His lectures on sex were so uncomfortable for some that indignant mobs of butchers and bakers once protested his teachings.
They claimed his health movement was bad for business, and men found his frank discussions of sexual repression especially unsettling — particularly when women were present.
“Wow. It is a wild little rabbit hole. After all, it appears to be somewhat more complicated than that. Graham Crackers appear to have been an element of a balanced total weight loss plan intended to cut back sexual urges. And it needs to be noted that that weight loss plan was also vegetarian,” a fascinated Tweeter wrote after learning in regards to the treat’s history, with one other person joking that the brown biscuit can have led to unexpected consequences.
“I loved eating them as a child, perhaps that influenced me,” they wrote.
