Sylvester Graham: Curing Sin With Crackers Since 1794 | Ep. 159

Graham crackers weren’t invented as a snack, they were part of a moral crusade. In this episode, Matt, Jason, and Drew unpack the strange story of Sylvester Graham, the 19th-century reformer who believed bland food could suppress sin, alcohol, and sexual desire.

We explore how Graham’s ideas fed into temperance movements, early health culture, and America’s ongoing obsession with controlling pleasure. From crackers to culture wars, this episode connects the dots between one man’s extreme beliefs and patterns we’re still repeating today.


#grahamcrackers #temperance #foodhistory

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Transcript

0:00

That dude was real white. You know what I'm saying? He didn't like any, I don't want any seasoning, like white person talking. That dude put raisins in a potato salad. You know, welcome back to arsenic culture with you today. Is Matt, your host, as always, and with me is Jason Lowlife Hale, who prefers the high life. To make his low life seem more palatable. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's solid. Uh, and then with me again is, uh, drew, uh, Courtney La Plant. Will you marry me Watts? What? Yeah, yeah. Uh, which, that's, that's my middle name too. I've been down for it. So, uh, and we are coming to you from the void. We haven't been here in like six months maybe? Yeah, I think, I think, I think so. I think it was just, uh, right before winter or right before. Um. Hell, it might have been springtime was here. It might've been summer.' cause we were actually out We had sweatshirts on. Yeah. Yeah. But here's the funny thing, it's December, what, 27th right now? Yep. And you all are in t-shirts. Yeah. And I'm getting ready to shed this layer 'cause it is warm outside. 65. Yeah. Uh, beautiful day. Feels like spring. So, uh, thank you Mother Nature for giving us this opportunity to record outside in December, uh, which is really nice as the northeast gets. Completely hammered with snow right now. Oh, is it? Yeah. Yeah. Like New York had to cancel like 300 flights or something like that. Heaviest snowfall in four years and we're out here getting a suntan, so, uh, that's pretty nice. But, um, I got a low SPF on today. I've got nothing. Yeah, I got a negative two. Uh, I just rubbed myself down with coconut oil, but, um, yeah, always happy to be back here. We thank, uh, Justin s skis for everything they do and letting us commandeer a, a table outside here to record. So, um. Doing something a little fun today. We just did our New Year's episode. Mm-hmm. And we did the AC awards, did the best of, and uh, we did like the best story, whatever. We haven't done stories in a while. I wanna, you're not, I wanna do more of those. I like doing those. Yeah. The reason we don't do 'em is 'cause it takes time to research and I'm lazy af and I don't want to actually do any work. But, you know, I think it, it needs to be done. It's fun and there's a fun, a lot of fun, fun, fun stories out there. It's especially when it comes to, to booze. Yeah. So, um. I wanna start this out by saying you guys are sinners. Yeah, you are sinning in a myriad of ways, and I'm gonna tell you how okay, it might be, it might be easier to say how I'm not sinner. Is this one of 'em right here? That's one of 'em right there. So, uh, drinking alcohol is a sin. Uh, you don't know what else is contributing to your sinful lifestyle. No. Is pepper. Pepper, uh, and it's, it's brother condiment, uh, salt or brother seasoning salt. Both of those are contributing to your sitting lifestyle. Did you know that I did not. Um, things Wow. Such as cumin? Mm-hmm. Or was it cumin? Cumin. Cumin. Cumin. I think I sin by mispronouncing it. Yeah, you do. Yeah. Um, anything that you enjoy is actually, um, it's a sin according to a gentleman by the name of Sylvester Graham. Have you ever heard of this guy? I have not, not until today. Sylvester Graham is a Presbyterian preacher. Let me pull my notes up here and get synced up with where we are. Um. And this gentleman basically pushed the rhetoric that if you enjoy something, it's bad for you. Okay. Which I think that's kind of a thing. Like people still, yeah. You think about it like, you know, in certain circles will do that. Yeah. Drinking a lot of food, too much food, you know, stuff like that. Yeah. Like in excess watching tv. Yeah. Just sitting around all the time. Not, didn't exercise, you know? Yeah. Seriously isn't, it's kinda like me. Yeah. Like everything I do. Wasn't there like a, a sect of like Catholicism that was like super hardcore? Oh wow. I don't know. Um, and if. They enjoyed something too much, they would actually like give themselves flog some kind of like corporal punishment. It just in a Dan Brown book I might have, I think it an Angels I of Nine Tales. I dunno if that's a real thing. I dunno. I dunno. That's all I was thinking when you were saying that somewhere there's a group of people that like, that's a good idea. Like aha shows flogging themselves. I did read a book, I just watched the movie, not the one pertinent to this, uh, content, but he did read a book. Um, but this takes place in the earliest. Early 18th century America, uh, during this period, industrialization was a big thing. America was grow, growing, uh, you know what else was going on? People were drinking like crazy. Oh yeah. Yeah. The normal thing to do was to wake up and drink alcohol. Day. Drinking was what everybody did. Probably safer than water at that point. Shit, it was cheaper than water. That too. Um, water was expensive and I guess because of like filtration and purification purpose, uh, um. Yeah, I guess you know, how much it costs to actually make water safe to drink, and alcohol by nature, it just like kills any bacteria in there. So, um, the main, the, the main alcohol of choice was, uh, whiskey, obviously. Mm-hmm. But also hard cider. Okay. And I thought about giving us a hard cider to start out with, but I figured, hey, we're at. The void. Let's, this is saki, Japanese Saki. Yeah. Except for you. We're high life. We're high life. Mm-hmm. It's one and the same. Right. So, um, so now where, where was he at? Is he in the US is like a certain part of the us? This was, this was up in the New England area. Okay. Okay. Um, makes sense. Cider, I mean, I don't think you're drinking a lot of cider, probably. Well, it's also early in the country's history. That's true. So, I mean, the country actually wasn't. That big yet. Right? Gotcha. You know what mean they're like three states. Yeah. And they were, they were all the size of Texas. Um, because of this excess, it led to something called the Temperance Movement. We actually talked about that in another episode. We did, uh, and I can't remember what it's called. There was a female, was something, something with that. And I can't remember this whole story, man. I can't remember either. But the Temperance Movement was, um, we've done a lot of episodes first before you get into that too. And if you've not already, if you're still watching, please like and subscribe on YouTube. Follow us for all the content. You can subscribe, get the notifications so you won't miss an episode. Yeah, my mouth was getting dry. I needed a drink anyway. Yeah. See, so that was perfect. I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you perfect timing signal. Every time I need a drink of something, I wish I had like a bell or a sig a signal to let her know that I'm ready for another one. That's right. Yeah. That signal without beating. I thought you're be like, so it's time for Matt to take a drink so I can stop talking, get a little squirt gun and fill it with sake. Like, like the hibachi chefs do, and you just squirt in my mouth. Good. Um, so anyways, this led to the tempest movement. So a lot of people were, ended up going, um, the opposite extreme. And they started to profess, uh, um, not abstinence, but um, moderation. Okay. In everything that you do. And it was wholly religious for the most part, but it ended up kind of segueing into, um, uh. Like not political. What am I trying to say? Um, the government was getting involved and they started Okay. To like create branches to want to control it. Kind of promote Yeah. Moderation. Yeah. In everything that you do. Well this gentleman, Sylvester Graham was born in 1794 in Connecticut. He was a Presbyterian minister. Um, he believed society was sick. Okay. Um, spiritually. Literally because like physically sick, because growing up he was sick, he was a, a little kid and he was always very frail, very feeble. Um, he was like malnourished. This was kind of common back then, a lot, you know? Right. A lot of people were not, I thought movies it started this way. Yeah. Like everybody's dead and they're covered in fleas and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. He was one of them. Uh, but he didn't die yet, so he ended up taking that literally, and he was saying, you know, humankind is. Sick Americans are sick. And a lot of that has to do with, um, drinking, but not only drinking anything that can lead to you eventually being horny. Okay. Okay. I wanna let that sink in. So sex is the devil. Right. So those alcohol alcohol's the devil. Uh, yeah. Alcohol makes you money. Football's the devil. Yeah. That's what Bobby Boucher's mom said. Exactly. Pretty sure he went so far as to say that anything that you enjoy mm-hmm. Is ipso facto related to another type of enjoyment. He's like just enjoying stuff and, and having fun. It might as well be lumped in with sex. It's all the same thing, so, so you're a sinner regardless of what it is that you enjoy. Yeah. So be it alcohol, be it. Um, spices, uh, condiments. That dude was real white. You know what I'm saying? If he did like any, I don't want any seasoning, like white person talking real. He was really, uh, that dude put raisins in the potato salad. You know, they're damn sure no raisins got too much flavor. We can't do that. And the potatoes were boiled, you know, just straight boiled and then just mashed with a hand. Uh, he spoke out against alcohol. Um, spices. Mm-hmm. Meat. Meat. Okay. Think about that. Yeah. Rich foods, condiments, sometimes even coffee and tea. Damn. Just 'cause they can, you can doctor milk and they can be testing, right? Yeah. Well, and, and back then too, like meat was like a delicacy. I'm sure that they didn't have access to a lot of it. So red meat was, yeah. Was was it like poultry the same way? I feel like all of it was, you look back then, I mean, I, I don't think it was like it is today. It's a staple at every mill, essentially. But yeah, back then I think it was. I think people really wanted that on their plates. They really wanted meat back then, but it just didn't have the supplies we have. No, it was potatoes and cabbage. Yeah. And it was hard to preserve, you know, harder to preserve, I guess. Right? Yeah. God forbid you put salt on there to try to preserve it because Correct. You'd be sinning. Yeah, sinner. Yeah. Um, and he blamed all these things for causing alcoholism, gambling. Prostitution social decay and masturbation. I think it's very important that he looked, he lumps masturbation in there, um, by eating red meat, you're gonna masturbate. I just love, I love like it's the, the visual, it's all the cumin that you, that she's and me come and then they come in with their whores. The min folk, her starts with salt and pepper. Oh my gosh. Yeah, exactly. Then those hussies come into town. Yeah. So his solution to all this was to eat whole foods. Not use any seasoning, okay? Don't drink alcohol, eat lots of vegetables. Everything had to be plain and bland. He sounds like a blast at parties. Yeah, I know, right? Mm-hmm. And the thing is, uh, a lot, some of what he says is technically sound. Sure. You know, like eat vegetables. Well, yeah. You're supposed to eat for it to eat vegetables. Yeah. But he just didn't do it for the right reasons. He wasn't like, vegetables are good for you.'cause they have lots of vitamins, minerals, right. He was like, vegetables. You need to eat 'em because you'll, you're gonna go to hell if you don't because you hate 'em. And you can't enjoy anything you're eating. So eat those. Yeah. Ex exactly right. Yeah. But if I'm going to eat broccoli, I'm gonna put a hell shit load of salt on it anyway. And garlic. Yeah. He also developed, uh, he also pushed whole grain bread, which was actually, it sparked a big movement, the whole grain movement, which was popular what, like 20 years ago? 15 years ago, maybe. Maybe even longer. It was like the anti-cholesterol. Yeah. Um. Whole grains. That was like the food pyramid. It was like the big thing. Right, right. So was you remember like that was, I like that was the sixties, maybe even the eighties. It was still around from Was, yeah. Was, yeah. They taught that. They taught that in school. Yeah. Yeah. And then they did away with it.'cause they're like, okay, we were, we were off. And because you had too many carbs, like you were eating 80% carbs your diet. Yeah. And they were like, this is part of a healthy diet. Yeah. Yeah. Eat lots of cereal, you know. Yeah, yeah. With a high fructose corn syrup in it. So, um. This whole grain that he pushed though, uh, he pushed it, he actually developed, um, coarsely milled flour. Okay. And he claimed that finally milled flour, which is how they, you know, consume their flour up until now, um, took away a lot of what God intended the flour to have on it, the grain. Again, he's actually, he's onto something. Correct. Because by removing a lot of the stuff that, uh, funnily does process. Yeah, yeah. You take out all the fiber and you take out some of the nutrients. So by leaving that, it is actually better for you. But again, he's doing it for the wrong reasons, you know? Yeah. It was less adulterated. Yeah. Yes. Another sin. Yes it is. Um, that's just multiple versions of it according to the context there. Yeah. So, um. Coarsely GRA milled flour became known as Graham flour. Okay. It was named after him. Okay. G-R-A-H-H-A-M. And then this cosley milled flour was used to make Graham bread and drum roll please. Graham. Graham crackers. I see where we're going. Graham, the founder of the Graham crackers. Damn. Um, those are good. They are good. They're probably too sweet for him though. You know what? They're teddy. They're loaded with like sugar and flavor. Teddy Graham's are even better. Yeah. Yep. I know it's true. It would be great if his first name was Teddy. That would've been ironic. But, uh, and as we'll see as this goes along, it's graham crackers have devolved into the exact opposite of what he wanted, because that's what the people want. But when they first started out, it was like probably like unleavened bread. You know, and it was like, they were probably like communion crackers, probably like a military rations like that hard attack. They would say, yeah, it is like essentially like a stale cracker bread kind of thing. They would eat. Yeah. I have no idea what you're talking about. Yeah. Hard attack. Hard attack, attack. Nod my head on that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. You gotta be educated like me, Matt. He ended up getting a, a pretty strong following. People that followed his teachings, uh, were known as mites, which is kind of a derivative name. I mean, it could have come up with something clever. More clever than that. Yeah. But, um, yeah, these people started to, you know, subscribe to what he was, was preaching, okay? And he would go around and he would deliver these lectures in these, in these speaking engagements, outdoors and in different venues, and try to push his agenda on people because he believed it was good for you in a spiritual way, you know, cleanse your body. And again, he was onto some stuff, but he was, he was off, uh, on why, you know, um. In doing so, he ended up making a lot of enemies. His enemies were butchers who? Uh, sell meat. Mm-hmm. Bakers who sell sugar, um, and basically all the other like trades and stuff that sold spices and sweeteners and like anything with flavor, you know, you make a cake. Well, this guy's walking around saying, don't eat cake. You know, they were getting pissed off. That's a huge thing back then too. The, the baking and also the, the spice trade. Yeah. And even at that time, it's still a lot of those spices you couldn't get, so. Yeah. Yeah. So he, um. Would go to these speaking engagements and people would, I, I think he actually charged admission for a lot of these people would pay to go and listen to him talk. And maybe he took an offering. Yeah, yeah. I know. With his graham crackers. Yeah. Yeah. As, as a communion donation encouraged at least $5. Yeah. But what also happened is all these, uh, in the northeast, all these bakers and butchers and stuff that were getting pissed off butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. Yeah. Oh my. They ended up, uh. Uh, crash in his, his lectures. Mm-hmm. So they would kind of round up a posse and they would go and like, heckle these people and they would like throw rocks and shit at 'em and be like, you know, throw meat at 'em and stuff. Yeah. Down with no seasoning. I was like, wild. It's, it's so crazy. They're a little sock cured pork at 'em. Mm-hmm. In 1834. Mm-hmm. In, uh, at Portland City Hall in Portland, Maine, uh, Graham was slated to deliver 16 lectures on quote, the science of human life. Okay. 16 lectures over the course of probably, I don't know, like half a month, month or something like that. Yeah, a couple weeks. He would only get to deliver one lecture. He was able, he did it three times, but he just only was able to deliver one lecture. They come get him. I'm about to tell you no. Yeah, you're on the edge of your, uh, uh, plastic. I'm actually not on the, because I'm gonna flip it over. I say, you know, um, the lecture was called The Lecture to Mothers. It taught female anatomy and counseled. Sex already. That's not gonna fly down. He's a man telling women how to, how to use their bodies. That's the original man's plan. The original man's plan. That's exactly it is, yeah. But back then, people were listening to him, right? So while he was speaking a mob, mob gathered outside this church that he was speaking at, it was the Temple Street Chapel. Um, they threw rocks through the church windows. Oh wow. Okay. And smashing these, these stained glass windows. Um, eventually, uh, there was so, like, so much commotion and just like destruction. He just had to stop. So he got three lectures in of his 16 lecture seminar. And they were, and they were just like, the police had to get involved, they had to usher 'em outta there to like keep him safe. Wow. And stuff like that. Um, in 1833 in Providence, a riot broke out and people just started like fighting stuff. And 1837 in Boston, another riot broke out. Um. Graham was speaking at a hotel, I don't know what hotel it was, and it was outdoors and a lot of his granites were in attendance. Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, like as in an audience, another hotel nearby butchers and bakers got on the roof and they took lime. And threw it on the people. Do you know what lime is? It'll burn you. Yeah. It'll burn the hell out it. Yeah. That's like in the movies, when you have a dead body's what? They need you top to dispose of the corpse. They were throwing lime on these people. I mean, that's deadly. Yeah. You know how crazy that is. Just like, it's good. Push your agenda, I'm gonna kill you. It's good seasoning. Yeah, it could. It could be. Yeah. If you're trying to seize a human body, yeah. I mean, it'd be edible then. So he would go on to influence the whole grain movement, which we just talked about there. Um, dietary reforms in general, like clean eating and like trying different diets. He was kind of a spark. I'm not saying he starred all that, but he was actually a, a spark that Right. Kind of pushed like people like trying different diets. Um, he also inspired John Harvey Kellogg, which you know the name Cereal, Kellogg's Cereals, corn Flakes. John Harvey Kellogg, um, developed, uh, cornflakes. He also was the inventor of granola. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. And he developed these things like cornflakes in particular were, um, the way he made 'em is they were really soft and they're supposed to be easy to digest in the body. So that was the point. Um, ironically. Kellogg's now also makes Cheez-Its Honey smacks Apple Jacks Fruit Loops, frosted Flakes. Pop-Tarts and Pringles. So, uh, there's, there's a little bit of seasoning in their portfolio now. Yeah. But as you can see, it's capitalism won over. Mm-hmm. I think it usually does. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, but it started out, this guy was just pushing like. Everybody just quit drinking and then it got, and everybody stopped eating. Everybody stop enjoying what you're doing because if you don't, you're gonna masturbate. You're a, if you masturbate, you're gonna go to hell, you're gonna masturbate. Makes sense. That's, that was, that's the whole crux of his, so he was essentially one of the first, like vegetarian. I mean, he's not eating meat. He actually, I think he invented vegetarians. Okay. Without even calling it that, I guess. Huh, maybe you did call it that. I don't, they did call it, they actually called it vegetarianism. Um, he ended up joining like a couple of councils, like, um, they weren't, they don't think they were government funded or elected, but they were like. You know, like scientific, not scientific, I dunno what I'm s say. Psychology, it's basically, yeah, these, like, you know, the national foundation for health. I'm making that up. It's stuff like that, right? These entities to where they would actually research and, and mm-hmm. Promote, you know, their, their own kind of like findings and stuff like that. So, um, he died, he died in, on September 11th, 1851. Malnutrition, you get him. Historian Steven Nisenbaum said, uh, while he was on his deathbed. Doctors told Graham to, uh, ingest liquor and eat meat to improve his nutrition because he was like, he was, I guess he was like malnutrition to a degree, but they're like, you're not doing well, so let's get you some red meat. Get that blood circulating. Mm-hmm. Get some iron, get you a little bit of alcohol in there. And he was like, okay. And then the kicker was, uh, they also recommended him to do, um, opium, um, uh, what do you call it, pository, when he's sticking in your butt. Yes. Well, yeah. Uh, yeah, he did opium enemas and that was the end of it. That will, that'll do it. That'll do it. Yeah. This guy promoted, uh, quote unquote clean living in order to go to heaven, and he died from an opium enema. It happens. Happens. I know it would've only been better if it was like a whiskey enema, but I mean, that's, that's about as. Is good. I seen, I'm surprised we haven't heard of that guy. I mean, you think of the graham cracker. You would've heard the story behind it, but Yeah. Yeah. Not a word. The original Bisco, right. I think guess who runs the official Graham crackers? Is it really? I didn't. I think it's Nabisco, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Original. There's ones like the Honey Ma, the blue box. I think that's Nabisco. Yeah. And they're sweet as hell. They are. They're good. Yeah. Sugar. They're a little peanut butter and honey on there. A little bit of salt on there. Yes. Little salt. Yeah, just all of the spices. Some cumin. Some parolin. Some lime. Some lime. Yeah. Let's just put a bay leaf on there. You know. Scream man, whatever Bay Leaf does. Bailly. Yeah. So, uh, that is Sylvester Graham's contribution to society. Uh, I just want to take this moment in the new year and thank him for, uh, making everybody realize that alcohol is okay to drink. Yeah. And we were only able to do that because everybody realized that guy was a lunatic. Thanks, sly. I'm gonna pour some. Oh wait, there's nothing to pour out. Because I drank it all. Because I drank it all. Sylvester Graham. Yeah. So I poured mine on my mm-hmm. But the moral of the story is don't do opium enemas. Yeah. That's good. Moral. So, wait, that's on the, that's how we're closing this episode, right? I think it is. Yeah. Don't do opium enemas. Yeah. Guys, if you like that, then share it for more arsenic culture. You can check us out. All the socials we are @arsenicculture and like, and subscribe on YouTube and we'll see you on the next one.