The humble graham cracker is a popular kitchen staple around the world.
In the United States, this beloved snack is often combined with chocolate and marshmallows to make s’mores, while the British prefer to have one with a cup of tea after dinner.
But there’s an X-rated story behind the cookie that may surprise people.
Graham crackers are named after Sylvester Graham, a 19th-century Puritan Presbyterian minister who hated sex and believed it made people sick.
He developed his own vegetarian diet, called the “Graham Diet,” which he believed would not only improve people’s health but also encourage abstinence.
The Graham Diet favored whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, and completely banned meat and stimulants such as caffeine, tobacco, and alcohol.
Graham’s belief was that stimulating food could trigger people’s primal instincts, including sexual desire.
Not only did he launch one of America’s first vegetarian movements, he also developed his own “healthy” snack: the Graham cracker.
The Graham cracker is a popular kitchen staple around the world, but many foodies are unaware that the snack was originally created to curb sexual appetite (file image)
In America, the beloved snack is often combined with chocolate and marshmallows to make s’mores, while Brits prefer to have one with a cup of tea after dinner (file image)
‘He talked about how the cookie could help suppress sexual desire, particularly in teenagers. And it gained some hardcore fans,” history professor Adam D. Shprintzen told the New York Post.
Online foodies were shocked to discover the secret story behind this simple snack, with one posting on X, formerly known as Twitter: “I need everyone to Google why graham crackers were invented!”
Another wrote: ‘I just discovered that graham crackers were invented by a Presbyterian minister to cure debauchery. Many of you need to start eating graham crackers.
A third added: “Today I found out that graham crackers were invented by an anti-masturbation activist who thought boring foods would help prevent sexual arousal.”
While graham crackers now contain all sorts of artificial sweeteners and additives, the original recipe consisted of little more than unbleached wheat flour, wheat bran, and coarsely ground germ.
‘It tasted rancid and hard to chew. “It would be difficult for our modern palate,” Shprintzen said.
“It was partly a response to the rise of industrial baking, which he thought was a less healthy form of bread.”
Graham’s health movement took off in the 1830s and was called “Grahamism.”
Graham crackers are named after Sylvester Graham (seen), a 19th-century Puritan Presbyterian minister who hated sex and believed it made people sick.
Online foodies were shocked to discover the secret story behind this simple snack.
He shared his views in his 1837 book, A Treatise on Bread and Bread-Making.
“Thousands of people in civic life will, for years, and perhaps as long as they live, eat the most wretched rubbish imaginable, in the form of bread, and never seem to think that they can possibly have anything better,” he wrote. .
“I have thought, therefore, that I could hardly do a better service to society than to publish the following treatise on a subject which, whether people are aware of it or not, is, in reality, of great importance to society. health and comfort of each one.
“There are few products of the plant kingdom that are even higher on the nutritional scale than wheat.”
Graham never directly sold or profited from a particular brand of Graham cracker.
Instead, her diet inspired others to market and sell variations of her recipes, from crackers to whole-grain breads.
The cookie officially took off in the late 19th century, decades after Graham’s death in 1851, when manufacturers began sweetening the recipe by adding things like sugar and cinnamon.
Today, graham crackers are used in a variety of dishes, from desserts and pie crusts to Starbucks Frappuccinos and more.