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Doctor Sylvester Graham (1794-1851) Most Important Time Period (1826-1851)

I was born in 1794 to a clergyman. I wanted to become a minister so I entered into Amherst College but when scorned by my classmates I dropped out. Three years and a marriage later I became a Presbyterian minister. I then entered in the fight against drinking and became a member of the Pennsylvania Temperance Society. I preached about the effects and evils of liquor on the human body. Although I was extremely anti-drinking, I was even more than that, I wanted people to take care of their body through everything they ate, drank, and did. I wanted people to exercise, eat extremely healthy and get good sleep.

I went around the country preaching my reform of nutrition. I thought that hard mattresses, cold showers and exercise were the best ways to keep humans in good shape. I told many Americans of my findings and why I thought this would better their lives. I also wrote a couple of books to reach a greater amount of Americans including //Treatise on Bread and Breadmaking//, and //Health, or How to Live.//

Many of my listeners thought I was crazy because I was so eccentric but there were also many people that believed in what I had to say and followed my teachings. Most of the things that I said proved to be true, although a little extreme.

At the time of my teachings there was a lot of heavy eating and meat consumption where I taught vegetarianism and a strict meal diet. Because of this, my goals for better care of the body made sense in the time period. I wanted people to stop these bad habits of nutrition and do things to take care of themselves. I created the idea of eating less and being healthier in my time period much to the contradiction of what people had been doing.

The Federal Government is now doing many things to further the goals that I had. This is easily seen in todays youth especially in schools where cafeterias are instituting healthier diets. Also, there are many speeches and papers given, especially to younger students, on the value of staying healthy and taking better care of the body, At the time it would have been hard for the government to do much to promote my ideas but one thing that they especially could have done is they could have started a few programs to promote good health and better eating habits.

Bibliography
 * "Sylvester Graham: A Man Ahead of His Time??? ." //Scribd//. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2010. [].
 * "Sylvester Graham Biography | BookRags.com." //BookRags.com | Study Guides, Lesson Plans, Book Summaries and more//. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2010. .