Sylvester Graham was a 19th century health advocate, minister, and moral reformer, who is often credited as one of the founders of the American vegetarian movement. He embraced ideas about self-control and morality that melded Enlightenment ideas about physical health and Protestant Christian ideas about spiritual health. He promoted simple diets filled with fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. One of his biggest contributions was a coarse, wholewheat flour which he named “Graham flour”, which he encouraged people to bake into bread. It was later used in “Graham crackers”, though the recipe was changed to use lighter flours and sweeteners when produced for mass markets.

Graham’s ideas influenced other 19th century American health reformers, like James Jackson, who invented granola, and John Harvey Kellogg, who invented corn flakes. While some of their ideas about diet have been largely accepted, their ideas about the link between diet and morality have been largely abandoned and the foods they invented have largely undergone saccharine reinventions to broaden their appeal to consumers.