Graham crackers were introduced to suppress sexual urges!

A New Jersey Presbyterian minister called Sylvester Graham developed the graham cracker in 1829. While the crackers are often used to make s’mores and pie nowadays, they were initially developed for an entirely different use. 

Marketed as “Dr. Graham’s Honey Buckets,” the sweet crackers were supposed to be a health food that would suppress unhealthy “carnal urges.” Graham believed that if he could get people to eat bland foods it would curb their sexual appetite, in turn making them a better person. 

While this theory did not exactly turn out to be true, another man, John Harvey Kellogg, also shared his idea. He went on to invent corn flakes cereal. Both the crackers and the cereal caught on and became some of the best selling foods in America, so they must have done something right!