Drop Dead Healthy

The Genitals

The Quest to Have More Sex

IT’S A DEBATE THAT’S BEEN around almost as long as sex itself: Is the act of intercourse healthy for you? Or will it kill you?

Weighing in on the “sex is dangerous” side were, naturally, Victorian-era experts. Not all Victorians lived up to their repressive stereotype, but others did so with enthusiasm. One of my favorite characters from the encyclopedia was the chastity-obsessed nineteenth-century health guru Sylvester Graham. Graham disapproved of lust and sex in general, with masturbation as his white whale. Touching yourself, he argued, leads inexorably to insanity, weakness, and death.

His prescription? Logically enough, bland foods. He believed the key to lowering the nefarious sex drive was a tasteless, spiceless diet. Which is how Graham came to invent one of the first health foods: the graham cracker, a snack that was originally made with wheat germ, wheat bran, and a little honey and was intended to quell the passions in hormonal adolescent boys. (I can’t speak for the original, but the modern bran-free version doesn’t seem to work so well in this regard. At least based on the following anecdotal evidence: I ate a lot of s’mores in high school.)