Sylvester Graham (July 5, 1794 – September 11, 1851) was an American Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer known for his emphasis on vegetarianism, the temperance movement, and eating whole-grain bread.
His experience with drunkenness there led him to hate alcohol his whole life and forswear drinking, which made him an exception among his peers at the time.
[4]: 30 Graham's appointment and conversion to vegetarianism came as the 1829–1837 cholera pandemic was breaking in Europe, and Americans were terrified that it would reach the United States.
[4]: 29–30 Accepted medical opinion was that the best way to prevent contracting cholera was to eat plenty of meat, drink port wine, and avoid vegetables.
[4]: 31 Graham taught himself about physiology and apparently arrived at his own conclusion that meat was just as much an expression of and spur to gluttony as alcohol was, that they corrupted both the body and soul of individuals and harmed families and society.
Wheat flour at that time was often doctored with contaminants such as alum, chalk, and plaster of Paris to extend it, whiten it, or to hide odors from spoilage.
[4]: 31–32 Like other members of the temperance movement, Graham viewed physical pleasure and especially sexual stimulation with suspicion, as things that excited lust leading to behavior that harmed individuals, families, and societies.
[1]: 19 From these views, Graham created a theology and diet aimed at keeping individuals, families, and society pure and healthy – drinking pure water and eating a vegetarian diet anchored by bread made at home from flour coarsely ground at home so that it remained wholesome and natural, containing no added spices or other "stimulants", and a rigorous lifestyle that included sleeping on hard beds and avoiding warm baths.
[1]: 21, 29 [2] Graham influenced other Americans, including Horace Greeley and John Harvey Kellogg, founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
[17][18] In 1850, Alcott, William Metcalfe, Russell Trall, and Graham founded the American Vegetarian Society in New York City,[19] modeled on a similar organization established in Great Britain in 1847.
[20] Graham died of complications after receiving opium enemas, as directed by his doctor, at the age of 57 at home in Northampton, Massachusetts.
[21] Historian Stephen Nissenbaum has written that Graham died "after violating his own strictures by taking liquor and meat in a last desperate attempt to recover his health".
[22] Russell Trall, who had visited Graham, noted that he had strayed from a strict vegetarian diet and was prescribed meat by his doctor to increase his blood circulation.
[21] Trall wrote that before his death Graham regretted this decision and "fully and verily believed in the theory of vegetable diet as explained in his works".