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Every thinking person must at one time or another say to himself, “Am I getting the most out of life?” The great comedian, Ed Wynn said, “Without your health, riches, possessions and fame are all mud.” What is a man without health, even though endowed with riches and fame? Riches cannot buy health and happiness. Just because a person has achieved fame, it does not follow that he is healthy and happy! I do not discredit success and riches! I think money and possessions have a place in our lives. Physical comforts and luxuries are important to most people. Take away a man’s wealth and give him only health and his first desire will be the return of his riches.

However with both achieved, a word remains which we hate to utter; a thought we dread to contemplate; a thing which gives sorrow, pain and grief. That word, that thought, that thing, is death! Even in cases where life appears a burden, how tenaciously does man cling to it! How the spirit recoils from a struggle with death! How fondly it retains its grasp on life! Man’s great desire is for health and long life on earth; “Man clings to the world as his home, and would want to live here forever, if he had health and long-lasting youthfulness.”

Bragg Motto – I Love Life & I Want to Live!

At our Bragg Health Crusade lectures, I often sing my favorite song – called “I Love Life, and I Want to Live” – for my students. These strong words express the inner desires of each one of us. Life in itself is a miracle! And you and I who have precious life are holding this miracle in the palms of our hands to treasure and protect.

Note: My father and I wrote this book together. However, because my father is both my mentor and the American Pioneer of Fasting – with long years of experience overseeing the fasting of thousands of students with miraculous results – this text is mostly presented in his voice. – Patricia Bragg

Fasting is the greatest remedy, the physician within.
– Paracelsus, 15th Century Physician, father of body chemistry

Life is Precious – It’s the Treasure of Treasures

Since Adam and Eve lived in that historic Garden of Eden, the prolongation of human life has been and still is mankind’s biggest challenge! The Persian and Greek sages, in the centuries before Christ, summoned their intellectual forces to solve it in vain. The scholars of the Medieval Ages pursued it zealously, but again were stymied. Today, in this fast-paced space age, every intelligent person deep in their heart and soul wants to live a healthy, long life. Most lack the proper health knowledge – the true key to a long, active, healthy life!

By following my mentors – Mother Nature’s and God’s Natural Laws, I invented the Bragg Healthy Lifestyle. Follow it and you can live to a healthy, active, advanced age! Every person owes it to himself, his relatives, his friends and his country to take care of his health! This will make him a valued, active citizen, not a financial burden! I believe that every one is entitled to active lives of 120 years or more as the Bible states . . .

“Man’s days shall be 120 years.” – Genesis 6:3

Longevity may be defined as the maximum duration of life that a healthy person can attain under the most healthy, favorable conditions by living a healthy lifestyle.

Unhealthy Lifestyle Killing Millions Worldwide!

Most people – because of their unwise habits in diet, drink and excesses – die prematurely, long before fulfilling their potential. Wild animals, undisturbed, live out their full term. Man is the only exception. Sadly, not more than one in a million lives out his natural life.

Every patient carries his own doctor inside! – Albert Schweitzer, M.D., Pioneer Medical Missionary

I have found a perfect health, a new state of existence, a feeling of purity and happiness, something unknown to most humans! – Novelist Upton Sinclair, a frequent faster

Arthur Reed, from Oakland, CA lived to be almost 12 years old, the oldest person in the nation. His virtuous habits for longevity: “I let go of three vices in my life. I don’t drink. I never smoked or chewed and a few years back I stopped gambling forever.” He rode his bicycle to work everyday and retired from Phoenix Ironworks just before he turned 11 years old.

Sickness is a Crime Against Your Body – Don’t Be a Health Criminal!

Animals in their wild habitat know by instinct how to live, and what to eat and drink. They know how to fast instinctively when they get hurt or sick. Naturally, animals are led to eat what is good for them. But man eats and drinks anything and everything – consuming the most indigestible concoctions, washing it down with poisonous slops – and then wonders why he is sickly and does not live to be a centenarian!

In theory, humans desire long life! Many shorten their lives to the minimum. Does this make sense? Why this marvelous mechanism of man – perfect in its minutest organism, combining a Godlike intelligence with a body which sculptors have imitated but never equalled – should be ruthlessly destroyed by its owner’s unhealthy lifestyle is one of the inexplicable disgraces of our culture!

The world famous marble statue of Apollo that Patricia and I saw in the Vatican at Rome is not greater in the perfection of manly beauty than that possessed by thousands of young men in our midst today. This inanimate marble of Apollo is as tenderly cared for as a rare, priceless jewel. Meanwhile, living man – noble, intellectual, refined, with a miraculous physical structure and an eternal soul – gives his wonderful body less attention than he gives to his car, cat or dog.

All people of sound mentality naturally desire a long, healthy, pain-free, happy and useful life. With our natural intelligence – super health, happiness and longevity should be the rule instead of the exception.

In my early career, I was associated with the great Bernarr Macfadden, the Father and Founder of the Physical Culture movement. I was the associate Editor of the pioneer health magazine Physical Culture. These lines always appeared on the front cover of every issue:

“Sickness is a Crime – Don’t Be a Criminal.”

Old age is a highly toxic condition caused by nutritional deficiencies and an unhealthy lifestyle.

Men do not die, they kill themselves. – Seneca, Roman Philosopher

Physical weakness, flabbiness and sickness have always seemed criminal to me – a sacrilegious abuse of that miracle instrument, the human body. I regained my health after being a hopeless tuberculosis victim years ago, and since then I’ve made a religion of keeping in perfect health through conscientious care of my body. Adhering to a high ideal of stamina, vitality, health and endurance has paid me great dividends – so priceless that I call myself “A Health Billionaire!”

To Be a Health Billionaire & Enjoy the Glow of Ageless Health and Happiness, You Must Work and Earn It!

The “secret” of the glow of ageless health lies in maintaining internal cleanliness and regeneration. This requires eating natural, organically grown live foods, combined with other healthy practices such as fasting, drinking distilled water, exercising and deep breathing.

When you purify your body with systematic fasting and live foods, you crave daily exercise, and by exercising you sculpt your body to become the person you want to be. Just think, from this minute on you can mold your body to physical perfection. With the knowledge found in these pages you will find out how you can reap the most out of life, physically, mentally and spiritually!

The human race is a miracle unique study, and an intriguing one! But the natural laws which govern man are simple and understandable if one takes the time to learn and observe how he functions from day to day!

Life Can Be Happy, Healthy, Joyous Adventure

To know one’s self seems like an endless task, but with crystal clear observation and the daily application of these simple but precise laws, life becomes not only a most exciting adventure, but a tremendous joy! Study and follow The Bragg Healthy Lifestyle throughout your life, and you will start to experience the day-by-day joys, happiness and truly great pleasures of a healthy body, mind and soul for a happy, long and vigorous life!