The ‘primary’ origin of graham crackers is shocking – it has to do with the ‘demand to have sex’

It was a sexual assault.

People are shocked to discover the sex-fueled graham cracker story as the incorrect story resurfaces online.

“I need you all to Google why graham crackers were invented,” wrote one surprised person on X. “Apparently this was tweeted a few years ago, but this is the first time I’ve seen this “.

Sharing a simple summary of the story, another added: “I just found out Graham Crackers were invented by a Presbyterian minister to cure lewdness. Many of you should start eating Graham Crackers.

Graham crackers were invented by Sylvester Graham, a 19th-century Puritan minister, in an attempt to quell the “carnal desire” for sex that he believed caused everything from headaches to insanity, experts and historians previously said for The Post.

But instead of simply preaching abstinence, Graham created something entirely different in hopes of quenching people’s sexual appetites and “curing” them: a snack, like a cracker.

Graham became popular in the Presbyterian Church, but was always obsessed with health after a childhood spent as a weak and sickly child.

He studied the human body at Amherst College—although he dropped out after failing to make friends—and soon realized that his life’s mission was to prevent the evils of sex, pleasure, and what he believed to be unhealthy. the effects of lust.

His crusade was his most ardent cause, as he claimed that the act could “inflame the brain more than natural awakening” and even lead to insanity.

“He was on a strong crusade against masturbation. He said, “If you eat meat, you’re acting like an animal, and you have to avoid those kinds of primal instincts — like the desire to have sex,” said Adam D. Shprintzen, who wrote about the strange origin story of the cracker in his book, “The Vegetarian Crusade: The Rise of an American Reform Movement, 1817-1921.”

He believed that food played a critical role in taming sexual desires and argued that food such as meat, coffee, and spices excited bodily desires, so he began promoting a non-exciting whole grain diet to “cleanse” the body.

The crusader even started one of America’s first vegetarian movements, asking followers to swear off meat entirely, believing that wholesome, simple food would promote a healthy and chaste life.

In 1829, Graham took his mission further and invented what would later become the graham cracker.

The first graham cracker was a flavorless, dry, whole wheat cracker made from finely ground, unbleached wheat flour and coarsely ground wheat bran.

The transformation of the graham cracker into the honey-sweet snack we know today happened after Nabisco bought the brand in the 1890s.

They added sugar and cinnamon, and the dry, unappealing cookie was reborn as a tastier snack, paving the way for its eventual role as the foundation for more.

Graham believed that the softness of the original cracker would keep sensual desires at bay, especially in teenage boys.

“He talked about how crackers can help suppress libido, especially in teenage boys. And he gained some strong followings,” said Shprintzen, who is also a professor of history at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Graham’s philosophy spread in the 1830s, creating the so-called “Graham Diet,” a regimen of bland bread, whole grains, and starches, with anything aromatic—meat, coffee, alcohol, and tobacco—strictly prohibited.

His followers, called Grahamites, were fervent in their belief that his diet could cure all manner of ailments from depression to nervousness, and some even claimed it improved their sex lives—not by encouraging lust, but by pressed it.

“As twisted as he was, medically, he was ahead of his game in some ways. We know now that diet is related to physical health, and too much meat and alcohol are not good for us, Shprintzen said.

His lectures on sex were so distasteful to some that angry 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 oppression particularly troubling – especially when women were present.

“Wow. This is a wild little rabbit hole. Of course, it seems to be a bit more complicated than that. Graham crackers appear to have been part of a total balanced diet intended to reduce sexual desire. And it should be noted that that diet was also vegetarian,” wrote one fascinated Tweeter after learning about the dessert’s story, with another person joking that the brownie may have led to unexpected consequences.

“I liked to eat them as a child, maybe this influenced me”, they wrote.