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Doctor Sylvester Graham was an American reformist who had a dream of a better and more healthy American. He was a Presbyterian minister, who had many theories on how people should take care of their bodies and live. This will cover the highlights of Graham's life and what his beliefs were.

In 1826, Sylvester Graham was ordained a Presbyterian minister. He attended Amherst College, however he never graduated. He then began to give lectures on living with a healthy diet and temperance. In fact, Graham joined the Pennsylvania Temperance Society in 1830, which was a group that practiced a moderation of alcohol. Graham believed sexual urges and alcohol were two of the most ultimate evils and caused disease. So, he suggested that a vegitarian diet was the best cure for those two evils. Graham did not just preach about the abstinence of alcohol and sex, he also preached about eating healthier and invented with food to help.

Doctor Sylvester Graham was the creator of the Graham diet. This diet consisted fruit, vegetables, whole wheat and fiber foods. It lacked in meat and protein because Doctor Graham believed that meat resulted in impure thoughts, such as sexual urges and masturbation. He gave a lot speeches and information on diet, such as the speech he gave in New York in 1831 on the relationship between diet and disease. Then, in 1837, Graham published //The Graham Journal of Health.// Graham continued to influence health when he helped found the American Vegetarian Society. But the most popular thing that Doctor Sylvester Graham was known for was the invention of the Graham Cracker which helped Americans maintain a balanced diet.

Doctor Sylvester Graham helped American with his theories of nutrition and temperance. He helped influence ideas to improve nutrition, like John and Will Kellogg's invention, corn flakes. He died in the year of 1851, due to illness. Even though Graham is gone some of his ideas of nutrition live on and helped benefit the world of nutrition today

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~ajhardy/graham.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_Graham

http://www.ivu.org/history/usa19/graham.html

http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/Biographies/Graham-Sylvester.html