3. Cornflakes

We’re not done with reverend Graham’s anti-wanking legacy just yet. Although his popularity waned by the late 1830s a few years before his death, he did gain some faithful followers.

One of which was cereal maker Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. In the same vein as the graham cracker, the cornflake was invented by Dr. Kellogg to prevent people from “touching themselves.” Because, you know, a bland diet equals pure, chaste thoughts.

Dr. Kellogg first introduced the cornflake diet to his patients at a Michigan sanitarium in the hopes of curbing masturbation and therefore preventing the health symptoms that allegedly came with it, such as mood swings, palpitation, and epilepsy.

When John Harvey wanted to market the cornflakes to the public, his brother Will added some sugar to the plain cereal to make it more palatable to general consumers, much to the horror of John Harvey.

Nevertheless, Will’s pushed through with the sweeter cornflake cereal and sold it through his business which eventually became the Kellogg company.

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