Sylvester Graham, also known as the "Father of Vegetarianism", was a Presbyterian minister who emphasized clean eating. Graham endorsed the consumption of unprocessed foods, as close in kind as possible to those consumed by our wild ancestors. Whole-grain bread was a favorite topic of his, and in this treatise he expounds upon the origins, benefits, and production of the healthiest bread possible.

Graham's message about healthy living exploded in popularity after an 1832 cholera outbreak in New York City. On his lecture tour after the publication of A Treatise on Bread, and Bread-Making in 1837, he was thronged with admirers, although his lecture circuit was interrupted by angry butchers and commercial bakers. His ideas about the connection between food and physical and spiritual health inspired the Kelloggs, and the Graham cracker is named after him.