Liquefy or Juice Fresh Organic Fruits and Vegetables

The juicer, food processor and the blender are great for
preparing foods, drinks, gentle (bland) diets and baby foods,
etc. Fibers of juiced fresh fruits and vegetables can be tolerated
on most gentle diets. Any raw or cooked fruit or vegetable
can be liquefied and added to broth, soups and non-dairy
(soy, rice or nut) milks. Fresh juices supercharge your energy
level and boost your immune system to maximize your body’s
health power. You may fortify your liquid meal or Bragg Pep
Drinks with any of these green powders for extra nutrition:
alfalfa, chlorella, barley green, spirulina, rice bran or wheat grass.

Give Your Vital Force a Chance to Clean House!

So it’s plain that when you stop eating to give your
body’s Vital Force a chance to clean house . . . you will
miss the food habit the first few days of your fast! It
could be uncomfortable if you allow it! Think positive!
When you fast, your Vital Force loosens the waste in
your body and gathers it up to be discarded. As long as
this goes on you might feel some discomfort. But once
the waste is discarded through the kidneys, you will
begin to feel better. As you fast, conditions change from
day to day. When your body is eliminating heavy
amounts of toxic poisons through the kidneys and other
organs of elimination, you could feel some discomfort.
But it should also be clear why you may feel better on
the 7th day of a 10 day fast than you did on the 3rd day.
Many of the toxic poisons that gave you trouble have
been flushed out of the body! Many people who fast
under my supervision felt far better and stronger on the
10th day of the fast than they did on the 1st day.
This always happens when I take a 7 or 10 day fast. I
always feel stronger at the end of my fast than I did at
the beginning. The cleaner you are inside, the more Vital
Power you have! So at the beginning of the fast, just
grin and bear the discomforts that may occur as you
purify the body. You know that as you get cleaner, you
are going to feel stronger. Again I say, to be a good faster,
you must, “Just Grin and Bear It!”. Whatever brief
discomforts you may experience during a fast are well
worth the great rewards you are going to receive!

Don’t Live to Eat – Eat to Live & Be Healthy

The hotel guests did absolutely nothing to earn all
these meals, but they paid for them and felt they should
be there to eat them. The same thing happens on cruise
ships. There is always a crowd waiting for the dining
room to open so they can eat what they paid for.
Food! It can be a blessing to man, but also a curse!
The body can take a lot of abuse from wrong food and
overfeeding. But there comes a day when the body’s
digestive system becomes over-stuffed, overworked and
overwhelmed – it’s then that health problems begin!
Digestive troubles plague modern man. Constipation
heads the list of his miseries. Tons upon tons of pills,
powders and liquids are sold to try and flush out the
waste packed into people’s intestines and colon. Modern
man packs food into himself faster than the functions
of digestion and elimination can handle it! This is very
much like trying to race your car with the brakes on.
There is scientific reasoning that constipation is the
foundation of many other body ailments. The reasoning
behind this conclusion is sound. If constipation means
retention of waste, here’s a simple test you can take.
Prepare your next meal, made up of everything you
would ordinarily eat, but don’t eat a mouthful of it.
Instead, put it in a pot; then place the container with
the food in a temperature around 100 degrees, the same
as inside the body. See that there is a liberal quantity of
moisture. Now watch what occurs over the next 8 hours.
The very first things you will notice are the bad odors
and rancidity. Then the food will mold, ferment and
bubble with gas. This gas pressure causes many miseries
in the body. If the gas presses upward against the
diaphragm you may even have stimulated a heart attack.
As it presses against the back muscles, it can cause terrible
backaches. This fermenting mass of putrefaction is
always throwing off toxins which can cause pounding
headaches, mysterious aches and pains all over the body.
Elementary microbiology tells us that, to produce
germs in quantity, keep food fermenting in the colon
and the bacteria will obligingly multiply. So, right in
our bodies, we breed all kinds of “bugs” that can cause
trouble. If you are prone to viruses such as colds, chronic
sinusitis and other ailments, a constipated condition
creates a favorable environment for the presence and
growth of unfriendly “bugs” involved in such ailments.
The toxic poisons generated by overeating or too
much of the wrong foods, can damage one of the body’s
most important organs – the liver. Few people realize
how important their liver is to life. It’s a great chemical
laboratory with many functions. It not only gives forth
bile, but it is the body’s greatest garbage disposal.
The liver and intestines are partners in the whole entire
digestive process! If one is sick, the other tries to come to
its aid until it too, breaks down. When the liver and the
digestive systems break down you are in serious trouble!
This is why you often find a swollen sensitive liver, a pasty
complexion and many times, jaundice and chronic
fatigue in conjunction with ongoing constipation.

Just Grin and Bear It

“I want to fast because I believe it would do wonders
for me, but how can I fast and yet escape the great feeling
of hunger that the first 3 days of fasting produces?” That
is the question that is put to us many, many times when
I discuss the Miracle of Fasting at our Bragg Health
Crusade lectures all over the world. We can give only
one answer “Just Grin and Bear It.”
“I tried a fast once, but I got weak and felt miserable,
I just had to start eating.” We often hear this excuse.
Nowhere in this book have I stated that fasting is
easy. Eating regularly has become such an ingrained part
of people’s lives that, if you take food away from them,
they experience many mental and physical reactions.
That is the very reason why fasting is not popular.
Humans are creatures of strong habits. Most people
automatically eat 3 or more meals every day and not
because they have earned their food with physical activity.
They have been brainwashed to believe everyone should
eat at certain hours for three regular mealtimes.
Patricia and I had the pleasure of being invited to the
grand opening of the fabulous Mauna Kea Hotel, on the
Island of Hawaii. It was an American-plan hotel, which
means the cost includes meals. Breakfast started at 7:30
am, luncheon began at 12:30 pm and dinner at 7 pm.
We passed the dining room at these hours, the guests
were all eagerly waiting for the doors to open so they
could get at the expansive buffet.
Were they hungry at exactly these hours? How could
they be? Most of the guests did nothing but relax on
the beach, socialize, drive golf carts, play cards or read!

Learn to Read Your Tongue’s Message

Mother Nature shows the faster by coating the tongue
that his body contains toxic poisons. The characteristics of
tissue construction especially
of the powerful internal
organs – the kidneys, liver
and all the glands – are like a
sponge. Imagine a sponge
filled with a thick putrefying
paste. I have supervised
thousands of fasts and seen
huge amounts of toxins
people store in their body
trying to survive on the
Standard American Diet (SAD).
During a cold, have you
ever stopped to think how
much mucus and phlegm
passes out of the body through
the nose and throat? This is also
how the vital organs such as the
lungs, kidneys and bladder are passing out poisons during
this cleansing (mucus, phlegm, rashes, fevers, etc.) crisis.
Start now to learn more about yourself by fasting and
closely watching your tongue, the spongy organ whose
surface accurately mirrors the health or ill health of every
other part of your body. The “Magic Mirror” can be a
guiding star in your journey to Super Health. The more
faithfully you follow a good fasting and a natural eating
program, the cleaner your tongue will become during a
fast. Also when you brush your teeth, brush or spoon
scrape your tongue from the back to the tip.
This is a definite signpost that you are on your New
Bragg Healthy Lifestyle Road – a life free of physical
problems and misery. This road will lead to your greatest
achievement – an Ageless, Painless and Tireless Body! So,
as you go on your 24 to 36 hour or 7 to 10 day fast, note
how much cleaner your tongue becomes with each fast.
This will reveal the amazing Miracles of Fasting to you!
Man does not die of old age! It’s been proven there
are no special diseases due simply to old age. Most
diseases kill both young and old. Many diseases start
from a body loaded with toxic poisons. Keep the body
clean by following your regular fasting program plus
eating only healthy foods. Your tongue and urine can
be your guideposts to internal purity. Watch both
carefully with respect when you do a cleansing fast

The Body Can Take a Lot of Abuse!

The average person believes that if they have one
good bowel movement a day, usually in the morning,
that they are free of constipation. Not so – one full
bowel movement is not sufficient to remove all food
material the average person stuffs into his intestinal
tract. As a consequence this rotten, putrefying, morbid
waste lies in the intestine, where it undergoes
enzymatic and bacteriological changes that can cause
severe health problems and maybe even colon cancer.
The human body is basically strong and can take a
lot of abuse from over-stuffing, plus eating unhealthy
meals. It is most difficult to tell these people who eat
incorrectly and have only one bowel movement a day
that they are constipated and thus are inviting serious
troubles later. But there is one warning signal – an
unhealthy tongue – that can tell these people that they
are carrying a nasty cesspool within their bodies.
If these people fasted for 2 or 3 days on distilled water,
their “Magic Mirror” tongue would tell them plainly that
they are carrying a horrible mass of fermenting poison inside
of their intestines. A few days of fasting will coat the tongue
with a thick, white, toxic material that has a strong odor.
This whitish coating can be scraped off and examined. In
fact, you can spoon-scrape and brush the tongue clean but,
in a few hours, the coating usually returns. This is an
indication of the amount of putrefying toxic filth, mucus
and poisons that are accumulated in the body’s cells that
are now being eliminated from the inside surface of the
stomach, intestines, organs and from all parts the entire
body. This is one of the cleansing miracles of fasting.
The actual amount of toxic material the average
person carries around with them is almost unbelievable!
In my opinion, many physical problems are the result
of this clogging of the 30 foot intestinal tube, the cells
and the entire circulation and pipe system of the human
body. I believe that these poisons cause a constitutional
clogging of the entire human pipe system, especially
plugging up the microscopically tiny blood capillaries.

Your Tongue Never Lies – It’s Your Inside Magic Mirror

Your tongue – your inside magic mirror – reveals how
much toxic material is stored in the cells and vital organs
of your body. The tongue (a spongy organ) is mirror of
the stomach and the entire mucos membrane system.
In your body there is a hose-like tube that averages
30 feet long, extending from the mouth to the anus. It
has the body heat of 98.6°, plus body moisture. Through
this tube passes all the food you eat. Now, different foods
take different times to pass through the tube. Sad facts –
most people eat an unhealthy, refined, concentrated,
acid-forming diet. They eat large amounts of refined
white flour, white sugar, salt and saturated fats. Most of
these commercial foods lack sufficient bulk, moisture
and lubrication to pass quickly through the 30 foot tube.
I believe that there is a common factor that precedes
or is coexistent with most body ills that afflict us. This
common denominator is constipation. Definitions may
differ but it is logical that if outgo does not equal intake
– either in terms of quantity or in frequency – then
constipation will occur and it can be the beginning
of more serious physical problems.
Most people are brainwashed to believe there is no
harm in eating almost anything, as often as they desire
it. We are told to eat big breakfasts to furnish plenty of
energy to last all morning. Soon after breakfast they
consume more food, donuts, etc. at mid-morning coffee
breaks. Then comes lunch, then a mid-afternoon coffee
break followed by the usual heavy evening meal, later
TV snacks and a bedtime snack before retiring. On top
of all this food, many people will gorge on snacks of
candy, salted nuts, cakes, pies, cookies and ice cream,
etc. This means that food is ingested six or more times a
day, literally stuffing and overworking your stomach!

Dedicated Great Health Healers

Dr. Kellogg’s Sanitarium specialized in a vegetarian
diet and people from around the world were restored to
radiant health by following his health program. I had
the privilege of studying under Dr. Kellogg and it was
one of the outstanding experiences of my early career.
In my early career, I was associated with Bernarr
Macfadden, Father and Founder of the Physical Culture
Movement (pg 145). Macfadden tried vegetarianism for
a time, but gradually went back to a mixed diet which
included meat and fish. He lived healthy and active to
nearly 88 years of age and he believed in mixing proteins.
Over my many years in the health field, I have met
many famous men and women who restored thousands
of people to health through natural methods. In the
1920s I worked with Dr. St. Louis Estes, D.D.S., who was
a pioneer and strict believer in the raw food diet. I saw
many broken, weak, sick people restored to health by
changing to his raw food diet. (I feel it’s best to have a
healthy balance of 60% to 70% raw foods. – P.B.)
Dr. Benedict Lust, M.D., N.D., was Father and Founder
of Naturopathy in America. He established in New York a
great school of Naturopathy which educated and
graduated thousands of Naturopathic Doctors who have
used and spread his health teachings around the world.
Dr. Henry Lindlahr, M.D., was a famous drugless
physician who lobbied for the return to natural methods
in the modern treatment and prevention of disease.
Professor Arnold Ehret was one of the world’s greatest
food scientists. He was the discoverer and creator of “The
Mucusless Diet Healing System,” which is a strictly vegetarian
regime. I knew many of Professor Ehret’s students who,
in their 80s and 90s, were still enjoying vigorous, robust
health by following his vegetarian health program.

My Beloved Health Teachers and Mentors

One of the greatest teachers and physicians in the
science of body purification and nutrition was Dr. John
Tilden, M.D., of Denver. This great scientist will surely
go down in history as one of the finest physicians. His
program included fasting and an abundance of fresh
fruits and vegetables. He lived into his 90s and was active
to the end of his life keeping his patients healthy.
Another of the finest doctors who specialized in
nutrition was the famed Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, M.D.
He was the director for 60 years of the famous Battle
Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Meat Has Toxic Uric Acid and Cholesterol

Meat is the major source of toxic uric acid and
cholesterol, both harmful to your health. If you insist
on eating meat, it should be an organically fed source
and not eaten more than 2 to 3 times weekly. Fresh fish
can be the least toxic of the flesh proteins, but beware
of fish from polluted waters. They can be loaded with
mercury, lead, cadmium, DDT and other toxic
substances. If you are unsure of the waters the fish come
from, don’t risk eating it. Avoid shellfish – shrimp, lobster
and crayfish. They are garbage-eating bottom-feeders
(the rats and flies of the water world). They eat decaying
scum and refuse off the bottoms of the oceans, lakes
and rivers. Chickens and turkeys are a sick bunch and
commercially mass fed and heavily drugged with
antibiotics and hormones. Be selective and cautious in
your eating; seek only the healthiest food choices.
It’s best people should not eat pork or pork products.
The pig is the only animal besides man that develops
arteriosclerosis. This animal is so loaded with cholesterol
that in cold weather, unprotected pigs will become stiff,
as though frozen solid. Pigs are often infected with a
dangerous parasite which causes the disease trichinosis.
Patricia and I enjoy being healthy vegetarians and
not polluting our bodies with unhealthy meat, fowl and
fish proteins. It’s safer and healthier getting our proteins
from organic vegetables, beans, legumes, nuts, etc.

Eliminating Meat is Safer and Healthier

Most uninformed nutritionists call meat the #1 source
of protein. Those proteins coming from the vegetable
kingdom are referred to as the #2 proteins. This is a sad
and terrible mistake. It should be the other way around!
In this day and age, almost all meat is laden with
herbicides, fungicides, pesticides and other chemicals
that are sprayed on or poured into the feed which these
animals consume. They are also pumped full of
hormones, antibiotics, growth stimulators and all kinds
of drugs to fatten them up and keep them from dying
from the extremely unhealthy conditions most of them
live in! This is not to mention the admitted fact that
many of them are fed the dead, ground up carcasses of
other feed lot animals who, for a variety of reasons, didn’t
make it to the slaughterhouse.
Speaking of the slaughterhouse, what kind of
chemical reaction do you suppose would occur in your
body if somebody put a choke chain around your neck
to keep you in line, shoved you onto a conveyor belt,
and made you watch in horror as all of those in line in
front of you were beheaded one by one? Well, your body
would be pumped so full of adrenaline from all that fear
you wouldn’t know what hit you! Unused adrenaline is
extremely toxic. If you think for a minute that most of
the meat that you consume is not packed with this toxic
substance, you’re sadly mistaken!
Also, consider the fact that cattle, sheep, chickens,
etc., are all vegetarians. When you eat them, you are
just eating polluted vegetables. Why not skip all the
waste and toxins and just eat healthy, organic vegetables?
And what about that myth that you have to eat meat
to get your protein? If that were so true, where do you
suppose farm animals, especially horses, get all their
protein? They are vegetarians! They get their protein
from the grains and grasses that they eat. You are no
different. You can get the proteins you need from the
large variety of whole grains, tofu, raw nuts, seeds, beans,
fruits and vegetables that God put on this planet for
your health.

I Prefer the Healthier Vegetarian Diet

Over the years of following a program of fasting and
eating a diet containing an abundance of raw organic
fruit and vegetables, my body has become so keen that
it practically tells me what to eat at every meal. After
years on this healthy vegetarian diet, my body has lost
the desire for meat, fowl and fish. My diet is composed
of organic raw fruits and vegetables, cooked vegetables,
beans, legumes, brown rice, etc. with raw nuts and seeds
and their butters, raw wheat germ and Brewer’s yeast.
This is what my body seems to thrive on. But
occasionally there were times when my body told me to
eat a piece of meat or a piece of fish, or to have some
natural cheese or a few fertile eggs. In other words, my
body developed an instinct for the selection of foods.
Sometimes I go 4 or 5 years without tasting eggs, etc.,
then my body will telegraph that I need some. Listening
to my inner voice has helped me enormously.
Basically I have been a vegetarian by nature most of
my life. I was reared on a large farm in Virginia where
hundreds of hogs and cattle were slaughtered regularly,
so killing has always been repulsive to me! I have never
been a hunter or a fisherman because I do not like to
take another life. I have made 13 expeditions to distant
lands and I have found many robust, healthy people
living on a vegetarian diet. On the other hand, I have
found people in other cultures who also enjoyed higher
health and yet included animal products in their diets.
I roamed the South Seas for over a year at one time and
in those far flung islands I found supermen and wonder
women. They not only lived on an abundance of fresh
fruit and vegetables, but they included fish, fowl and
some meat in their diet. So you see I have tried to be as
fair as I could about this question of Vegetarianism versus
Meat Eating. I feel that as we cleanse and purify our
bodies we develop a keen sense of what is healthiest
and best for us to eat. Keep a daily journal and see.

I Prefer the Healthier Vegetarian Diet

Over the years of following a program of fasting and
eating a diet containing an abundance of raw organic
fruit and vegetables, my body has become so keen that
it practically tells me what to eat at every meal. After
years on this healthy vegetarian diet, my body has lost
the desire for meat, fowl and fish. My diet is composed
of organic raw fruits and vegetables, cooked vegetables,
beans, legumes, brown rice, etc. with raw nuts and seeds
and their butters, raw wheat germ and Brewer’s yeast.
This is what my body seems to thrive on. But
occasionally there were times when my body told me to
eat a piece of meat or a piece of fish, or to have some
natural cheese or a few fertile eggs. In other words, my
body developed an instinct for the selection of foods.
Sometimes I go 4 or 5 years without tasting eggs, etc.,
then my body will telegraph that I need some. Listening
to my inner voice has helped me enormously.
Basically I have been a vegetarian by nature most of
my life. I was reared on a large farm in Virginia where
hundreds of hogs and cattle were slaughtered regularly,
so killing has always been repulsive to me! I have never
been a hunter or a fisherman because I do not like to
take another life. I have made 13 expeditions to distant
lands and I have found many robust, healthy people
living on a vegetarian diet. On the other hand, I have
found people in other cultures who also enjoyed higher
health and yet included animal products in their diets.
I roamed the South Seas for over a year at one time and
in those far flung islands I found supermen and wonder
women. They not only lived on an abundance of fresh
fruit and vegetables, but they included fish, fowl and
some meat in their diet. So you see I have tried to be as
fair as I could about this question of Vegetarianism versus
Meat Eating. I feel that as we cleanse and purify our
bodies we develop a keen sense of what is healthiest
and best for us to eat. Keep a daily journal and see.

Eat Plenty of Cabbage – The Miracle Cleanser and Healer

Cabbage (raw) has amazing properties. It stimulates the immune system, kills
bacteria and viruses, heals ulcers, and according to Dr. James Balch in Prescription
for Cooking and Dietary Wellness, your chances of contracting colon cancer can be
reduced by up to 60% by eating cabbage weekly. Dr. Saxon-Graham states that
those who never consumed cabbage were three times more likely to develop colon
cancer. A Japanese study shows that people who ate cabbage had the lowest
fatality rate from any cancer. Therapeutic benefits have also been attributed to
cabbage in relation to scurvy, gout, rheumatism (arthritis), eye diseases, asthma,
pyorrhea, and gangrene. See our Bragg Salad Recipe (page 231). Cooking destroys
the cabbages healing properties. We love cabbage and also we make a variety of
sandwiches wrapped in cabbage leaves instead of bread. Try this – so delicious!!!

Vegetarianism Versus Meat Eating

Over the long years that I have been a Nutritionist,
the controversy of “Vegetarianism versus Meat Eating”
has raged furiously. Both sides present the most scientific
reasons for their side of the story. I am not going to try
to persuade you to be either a vegetarian or a meat eater.
There are hundreds of books written on both subjects.

The Bragg Healthy Lifestyle Promotes Super Health & Longevity

Remember that raw foods are the live, vital foods.
They are as Mother Nature made them. They’re whole,
natural, live foods – vibrating with enzymes and solar
energy! Most people want food that stimulates them –
the sugars, fats, salt, heavy, overcooked and refined foods
that have little food value. They want fast foods and
most of them have been stripped of their goodness.
The Bragg Healthy Lifestyle consists of eating a diet
of 60% to 70% fresh, live, organically grown foods; raw
vegetables, salads, fresh fruits and juices; sprouts, raw
seeds and nuts; all-natural 100% whole grained breads,
pastas, cereals and nutritious beans and legumes. These
are the no cholesterol, no fat, no salt, “live foods” that
produce the body fuel that helps produce healthy, lively
people. Healthy “live foods” and fasting are the main
reasons people become revitalized and reborn into a fresh
new life filled with youthfulness, health, vitality, joy and
longevity! There are millions of healthy Bragg followers
worldwide proving this lifestyle works miracles!

The Ideal Elimination Program

In my own life, by living on a diet which is rich in
bulk, moisture, water and lubrication, I have established
the following good elimination habits. I have a bowel
movement shortly after arising. I encourage this by a few
waist twists and leg kicks (pg. 118) to help give me good
elimination. I told you, I don’t eat breakfast because I
believe the No Heavy Breakfast Plan is healthier. Several
hours after arising I then eat delicious organic fresh fruits
or a dish of fresh sliced pineapple, banana, orange,
papaya, etc., or Bragg Pep Drink or dish of prunes or
sundried apricots soaked in pineapple juice. At noon I have
my first real meal of the day, usually Bragg Raw Vegetable
Salad page 231. I often add avocado to my salad – veggies
and avocados are excellent lubricants in promoting
healthy elimination for the gastrointestinal tract.
I make it a hard and fast rule to always eat my salad
first. I do this for several reasons. First I think we must
educate our 260 taste buds to accept only natural foods.
Therefore when you have raw foods, either a raw vegetable
salad or a fruit salad to start the meal, you educate your
taste buds to enjoy and want clean, live, healthy foods!
Most people start a meal with a broth or soup with
sandwiches or bread. This is wrong in my opinion! To
make the taste buds keen, sharp and alive – having your
raw health salad or fresh fruits first starts the digestive
juices flowing for raw foods are rich in natural healthy
enzymes. All this contributes to good nutrition. I urge
you to always eat something raw at the beginning of
each meal. You will find in time your taste buds will
begin to reject devitalized, unhealthy foods that you may
be tempted to eat. As you re-educate the taste buds to
enjoy more fruits and salads, you will find that you can
and should increase the daily amount of raw, live foods
you eat to 60% to 70% of your total intake – it’s the healthiest!

Remember – Don’t Worry About Evacuation

It may take the body a day or two to adjust to eating
again, so don’t be concerned if your bowels are sluggish.
In many instances some people will have a bowel
evacuation shortly after eating their first meal after a
fast. Elimination is different for each person, so we
cannot set a standard when the bowels will move. I urge
you to be patient with Mother Nature and don’t try to
force your bowels to move. Mother Nature has given
the bowels their own sanitation and antiseptic system.
This system will promote natural bowel movements. You
are now eating healthy foods that stimulate the
peristaltic or wavelike motion of the bowels. When they
do begin evacuation, if you follow our instructions and
always eat healthy foods, you will establish healthy
regular eliminations that will naturally flush the toxins
and waste matter from your body on a regular basis.

IMPORTANT – It’s Harmful to Your Body to Overeat!

Don’t eat more than you need or desire! Remember
that you have been without food for 7 to 10 days. By
this time, you have lost the strong craving for food.
Because you eat, does not mean that you are going to
immediately feel a surge of energy. It takes the body
time to adjust from a detoxifying mode to eating again.

How to Break a 10 Day Fast

There is little difference between the 7 and the 10
day fast. On the 10th day around dinner time you will
have stewed tomatoes; from then you will follow the
same schedule as given in the 7 day fast.

How to Break a 7 Day Fast

Remember that when you have been on a 7 day fast
your stomach and the 30 feet of intestinal tract have
contracted. When you are ready to break the fast, don’t
overeat, please eat and chew your food slowly as directed:
Around 5 to 6 pm at the end of your 7th day fast, peel
and cut up 4 or 5 organic tomatoes (or canned, salt-free
tomatoes), add cup distilled water, and garlic (mashed) if
desired, bring to boil and turn off heat. When cool enough
to eat, serve in bowl with liquid. Spray some Bragg Aminos
over top and a dash of Bragg Vinegar and Bragg Olive Oil.
Eat as much as desired. Around mid-morning of the 8th
day, have a medium salad of chopped cabbage, grated beets
and carrots, with half an orange or lemon squeezed over
it. After your salad, if desired have a bowl of steamed
greens (kale, Swiss chard, collard, mustard or beet greens) and
peeled tomatoes, season with garlic, Bragg Olive Oil and
Aminos. Bring greens to boil, then turn off heat. With
greens, you may eat 1–2 slices 100% whole grain bread
that’s been oven–dry–toasted into melba toast. See recipe
below for delicious garlic toast. During the day have three
Bragg Vinegar drinks and all the distilled water you wish.
For dinner you may have another salad of grated
cabbage, carrots, chopped celery and avocado, with fresh
orange or lemon juice for dressing. Often you may not
require or desire any more food. But, if so, you may have 1
to 2 cooked vegetables; such as broccoli, stringbeans,
carrots, peas, okra, squash, etc. You may also have 1-2 pieces
delicious whole grain garlic toast. Lightly dry–toast bread
slices in oven. Rub raw garlic cloves on both sides, spread
with Bragg Organic Olive Oil, then spray with Bragg Liquid
Aminos and sprinkle on nutritional yeast (large) flakes.
On the morning of the 9th day, you may have a
variety of fresh organic fruits such as banana, pineapple,
papaya, grapes, orange, grapefruit and apples. Or you
may have a Bragg Pep Drink (page 230). At noon you
may have a salad of grated carrots, cabbage and celery
and some garlic toast. At dinner you may have the Bragg
Health Salad and, if desired, steamed veggies or soup.

How to Conduct a 3 Day, 7 Day & 10 Day Fast To Detox, Repair, Rebuild and Restore Health

A fast of 3 days or longer should be conducted under
ideal conditions. You should be able to rest any time you feel
the toxins passing out of your body. During this time you
might feel some discomfort. You should rest and relax quietly
until the toxins have passed out of your body. It’s best to be
at peace and alone when possible. This brief period of
discomfort will leave as soon as the loosened toxins have
passed out through your kidneys, lungs, skin, etc.
During longer fasts don’t tell others you’re fasting. Why
not? During a fast you must keep in mind only positive
thoughts of the cleansing and the renewing miracles
happening in your body. Often others are ignorant and
uninformed about fasting and project negative thoughts.
Our fasting is such a very personal and quiet time that
many years ago I went into the Santa Monica Mountains in
California and bought a tract of land in the wilderness of the
Topanga Canyon near Malibu. There I built a retreat cabin,
identical to Thoreau’s at Walden Pond. In that natural
seclusion, Patricia and I enjoy the quiet and peace for our
fasting time. If it’s possible for you to get away to some
secluded place and do your fast in Mother Nature’s splendor
with fresh air and solitude, you will enjoy better results!
There are also some very fine health spas throughout
the world where all the conditions are perfect for a restful
fast. Inquire at health stores for any located in your area.
Many of the Bragg students who fast regularly tell us that
they use their vacation as a period of fasting and purification
of body, mind and soul. Often they will go to some beautiful
spot to rent accommodations and take their fast in seclusion.
I am not saying it’s necessary to go away to fast. Your home
is your castle and hopefully you will be cozy and peaceful
there. The Bragg family all regularly fast. When any one is
fasting, we have great consideration for them. We have an
agreement not to ask each other how we feel during the
fast. Fasting is so personal that no one can do anything for
you during the fast, so it’s best not to discuss it with others.
Relax and be thankful for your miracle cleansing.

Fasting Promotes Healthy Elimination

I have explained to you very thoroughly that this is
a world filled with toxins and poisons. Our only salvation
is to be faithful with a regular program of fasting. This
fasting strongly promotes a healthier colon and good
elimination. It helps keep the body cleaner and healthier
by regularly purging out the vicious toxins. It can mean
a whole new, cleaner life, because when you are healthy,
you have more joy, peace and energy in your life.

An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Ton of Cures!

Those of you who are reading this book should not
wait until Mother Nature shocks you into detoxification.
Isn’t it far more logical and sensible to give your body a
physiological rest every week for 24 to 36 hours? Isn’t it
good, sound reasoning for you to take a 7 to 10 day fast
from time to time and give your body a chance to purify
itself? Give your body a chance to get rid of any
accumulated toxins! In our modern, complex civilization
we are absolutely bound to pick up poisons and toxins.

You Pay For Your Sins Sooner or Later

Many people inherit constitutions of steel through
heredity. They can laugh and flaunt at God and Mother
Nature’s Laws and seem to get away with it! Inevitably
the day of reckoning always arrives, the day when
Mother Nature starts a purification by some form of
elimination. I have seen so-called healthy people who
thought they could eat and drink anything, smoke, lose
sleep and work long hours – suddenly collapse with a
heart attack, stroke or illness. Sadly, I have seen many
of these powerful people go to an early grave due to
their disregard of common sense health laws!
So I knew that my student had to be handled very
carefully. It pleased me that he kept up his program
persistently and faithfully. It took almost a year of weekly
24 to 36 hour fasts and strong adherence to The Bragg
Healthy Lifestyle to defeat his annoying body odors.
Today that man has a sweet, clean breath. There is no
longer any putrid odor exuding from his body. He is an
entirely different man. He not only defeated the enemies
within his body, but he looks and feels 20 years younger.
He’s now handsome, youthful and vigorous, with
personal magnetism. He’s more relaxed because he has
a healthy body and a healthy, peaceful mind. Now it
must be very plain and obvious to you why I use fasting
as an effective, safe method of detoxifying the body. Most
people wait until something happens to their health
before they take action – and sadly it’s often too late!

Fasting Pulls Out Toxins and Poisons

In time I put him on a 7 day fast. The first three days
were rough because he was now eliminating large
amounts of toxic poisons. He vomited some mucus and
yellowish-green bile during the first 4 days. When
nauseated it’s best to drink water, then vomit toxins out
that have collected in your stomach. You will feel better
right away. The 5th day he broke out in a cleansing rash
that lasted a few days, then vanished. The odor that came
from his body and breath was almost unbearable! He
gave me a specimen of his first urine every morning.
He sealed it tightly, dated it and stored it on a shelf to
settle. Be sure and do this. Fasting is a cleansing-healing
miracle! The proof is the foul urine that comes out!
I am well-acquainted with the sickening odor of
putrid urine, being a health practitioner. In my many
years in the health field, I’ve spent time in hospitals
and health spas inspiring patients to cleanse; recover
their health; be strong; always live a healthy lifestyle;
and treasure and protect their life!
After his 7 day fast, I eliminated more refined foods
and gave him more raw fruits and raw vegetables. After
several more weeks, I put him on a 10 day fast. This was
a much easier fast for him, but he still eliminated heavy
amounts of toxins. This is called the “latent poison” that
becomes concentrated in the cells of the body. It takes
time with regular fasting and a cleansing diet of fresh
organic fruits and salads and the Bragg Vinegar Drink
(page 230) to slowly dislodge these deeply stored toxins.
Often people will say to me, “Well, with all due
respect to your philosophy of living, I am a perfectly
healthy person. I eat what agrees with me, drink all the
coffee I want and eat what normal people eat.” But I
know better, I know poisons are accumulating in their
tissues. I know some day it will break loose and they
will become deathly ill with a variety of illnesses – aches,
pains, headaches, colds, flu, rashes, etc. – as this healing
crisis is trying to clean out the toxins. That’s what disease
and sickness are – Mother Nature trying to cleanse and
purify the burdened body of toxins, accumulated since
childhood, by pushing these toxins out!

Unhealthy Lifestyle Causes Unhealthy Life

When questioning this man before putting him on
his first fast, I found that he had been enervated by
terrible lifestyle habits, overwork, marital difficulties and
heavy financial responsibilities. When you enervate
yourself, over-expend your nervous energy and exhaust
your Vital Force, the elimination organs can’t do their
job effectively and efficiently. This man was plainly
suffering from chronic nervous fatigue! His eating habits
were unhealthy. His working day was so busy that he
would gobble a sandwich and wash it down with coffee.
He simply didn’t take time to prepare healthy meals. He
was constipated and his elimination was off it’s rhythm.
I told him it had taken years to get his body into this
decaying condition and that a program of fasting and
natural living would take time to accomplish its mission.
But he was an intelligent and logically thinking man
and fully cooperated with our Bragg Healthy Lifestyle
Program. I started him on a series of 36 hour fasts and
between the fasts, I gradually added more raw fruit and
vegetables to his heavily concentrated diet of refined
sugars, fats and meat. I believe there must be a transition
period between changing from a unhealthy diet to a
healthy diet. It’s best not to force the body to change
quickly. You must take things slowly. Instead of eating
meat 3 times a day, he now ate meat only once a day. He
had been a great eater of white bread, so I substituted
100% whole grain breads. It’s best oven dry toasted.

Mother Nature Intended the Body and Breath to Be Sweet and Free from Odors

You will find after a fast that you’ll have more saliva
which contains the important enzyme amylase. You will
discover that your mouth will taste sweeter and your
breath will be clean. The more you fast, the less mouth
and body odor you will have! I never need deodorants.
Several years ago I supervised a fasting program for a
student who came to California from New York. His
problem was a terrifically bad body odor that exuded
from every part of his body, particularly from under his
arms, the palms of his hands and his feet. The odor can
only be described as putrid. It wasn’t that the man didn’t
take baths – because he told me that he took as many as
3 and 4 hot, soapy showers or baths daily and would use
all kinds of deodorants or antiperspirants. But it was all
to no avail, for that horrible body odor persisted. He
was becoming a nervous wreck because he felt like a
social outcast. He not only had a bad body odor, but he
had such heavy halitosis his breath could knock you
over! He used gargles, lozenges, chewed mint gum, but
still that rancid, bad breath persisted.

Fasting Balances Your Thermostat Naturall

I have fasted for so many years that I am perceptive
to what a fast is doing for me. My inner voice seems to
tell me when it’s time to break each fast. Remember, let
your body and inner voice guide you, for your body
wants you healthy, alive and the toxins removed!
I always mark on my calendar a fast for my spring
“house cleaning.” My spring fast always runs the full 10
days because that is when I truly want to clean house
after a long winter. During our Bragg Health Crusades, I
am often forced to talk in over-heated halls and
auditoriums. I am sorry to say that most humans cannot
take the cold weather, nor can they stand a fresh, healthy,
well-ventilated hall. So I must forget my feelings and
lecture in these over-heated halls to the hot-house plants
of modern civilization that most people have become.
Fasting so greatly purifies the body and so exhilarates
the body’s functions that the thermostatic system of the
body works with more efficiency. For instance, I can leave
my desert home near Palm Springs, California, in January
– when the heat averages in the 80s during the day and
the nights in the 60s – board an airplane to Midwestern
cities such as Duluth or Minneapolis, Minnesota or to a
Canadian city such as Toronto – where the temperature
will be as low as 10 to 30 degrees below zero and, because
of fasting and natural living, my body will adjust easily
to this bitterly cold winter weather.
I find I can take the most frigid weather better than
most of the inhabitants who are supposedly acclimated
to their own climate. This ability to adjust to climate is
only one of the many fasting miracles that happen to
the body. Fasting gives the body a chance to flush out
the toxic poisons and build up its Vital Nerve Force.
But, as I have stated earlier, when I go to the cities
that are locked in freezing weather, I find that their halls
and auditoriums are overheated. There is so little oxygen
in the air that my body will naturally absorb some of
the carbon dioxide that people expel from their lungs
during their breathing process. That is why my spring
fasting is so valuable. I want that 10 day fast to flush out
of my body any accumulated toxins, plus any other toxic
poisons that are found in those artificially heated halls.
That’s why my springtime fast is always 7 to 10 days.
Then when summer rolls around, I take a 7 day fast
in late July or August. This is the easiest of all my fasts
because I have been eating large amounts of luscious,
fresh fruits and garden-fresh organically grown
vegetables. I believe I enjoy my summer fast more than
any other. In fact, this fast is so easy that I never stop
either my heavy physical exercise or mental activities.
My autumn fast can be anytime in late October or during
November. It also extends from 7 to 10 days.
Fasting truly has many cumulative miracle effects. I
fast about 75 days a year. It is a great physiological rest I
give my body and digestive organs. This includes my
liver, gallbladder, and all other faithful organs, including
the ones producing hormones, that are running my body
and keeping me healthy! The physiological rest that I
give my pancreas allows it to produce ample insulin.
This also goes for the stomach, where so many digestive
juices are needed to handle and digest my food intake.

Good Elimination is Important

It is natural to squat to have bowel
movements. It opens up anal area more
directly. When on toilet, putting feet up 6
to 8 inches on waste basket or footstool
gives the same squatting effect. Now raise
and stretch your hands above your head
so that the transverse colon can empty
completely with ease. It’s important to
drink 8-10 glasses of pure water daily!
Read pages 138, 155-157, and take psyllium in drink daily.
Some fasting books recommend that you should have
an enema or colonic daily during a fast. I feel enemas and
colonics during fasts are optional and usually not needed
– but if desired then try them and then decide. The only
time I suggest them is during extreme constipation, in an
emergency or on advice of your health practitioner. When
the bowel refuses to evacuate, or in illness, extreme gas or
bloating; an enema of warm, distilled or purified water
with 3 Tbsp of fresh lemon or aloe juice is strictly a
temporary means to cleanse and move the bowels.
In comparing the enema to a powerful laxative, we
would say that the enema is superior to the drug laxative
– but it certainly has its own faults. If you continue to
use enemas, laxatives or colonics over a long period of
time, it will irritate your bowel and wash out important
internal secretions (healthy intestinal flora or “friendly
bacteria”) necessary for good bowel function. To replace
the flora lost due to antibiotics, drugs, yeast infections,
candidiasis or colon abuse, a 40 to 60 minute retention
enema can be helpful. Use warm, distilled purified water,
add 2–3 tsps acidophilus liquid or powder to enema bag.
During a fast, your body is having a rest! Since no
food is being eaten, there might be only 1 or 2 or even
no bowel movements during the fast. Your elimination
system is having a rest. It’s best not to disturb it. The
body has its own sanitation and antiseptic system within
the bowel. Don’t worry, in most situations you don’t
need enemas. When you have finished your fast and
begin eating raw, healthy foods and living The Bragg
Healthy Lifestyle, your eliminations will be more regular.

Don’t Worry About Bowels During the Fast

One of the greatest worries most people who fast have
during a fast lasting from 3 to 10 days is that their bowels
may stop moving. You shouldn’t worry about bowel
movements during a fast! Elimination adjusts itself shortly
after each fast, so forget about bowel movements and think
about the wonderful cleansing your body is experiencing.
Mother Nature’s plumbing system works perfectly if you
allow it to (but a few colonics and enemas are optional if
desired and needed.) When the fast is over and you eat meals
that are well-balanced in bulk, moisture, lubrication and drink
8 glasses of distilled water daily, your bowels will move better
than ever! Try to eat 60% to 70% raw foods in the form of
organic salads, sprouts, fruits, veggies and their fresh juices.
Living The Bragg Healthy Lifestyle will promote a
healthier colon and regular elimination. You can also add
1 to 2 Tbsps of psyllium husk powder daily – hour after
dinner – stir in juices, pep drinks, herbal teas and even
the Bragg Vinegar Drink. This mixture works wonders!
Other miracles for regularity are 1–2 Tbsps crude
blackstrap molasses in cup of hot distilled water (it’s also a
healthy coffee substitute). Also another miracle are flax seeds.
I introduced them years ago and millions have benefitted.
Soak 2 Tbsps flax seeds in cup distilled water for 3 hours
(gets gel-like). Drink hour after dinner. Use as hot or cold
drink, add honey or molasses if desired. Great also to grind
2 – 3 Tbsps flax seeds and sprinkle over foods. Flax seeds are
nature’s richest source of Omega-3 essential oils for your
heart’s health. They help repair cells and tissues, transport
oxygen, satisfy hunger and help burn up excess body flab.

The Vegetarian Diet is Healthiest!

Vegetarians are healthier and live longer! If you must
eat meat and fish, please don’t consume it more than 2
to 3 times weekly. Eat whole grain health breads – they
are best lightly dry toasted into a melba-like toast so the
starch is converted into what we call “blood sugar”. See
page 89 for Patricia’s recipe on garlic toast. Sprinkle the
large flake nutritional yeast over salads, veggies, potatoes
and soups. This gives your body the B vitamins for your
nervous system and also a healthier elimination.

Keep Your Meals Healthy and Simple

When the toxins are passing out of your body and
you feel some discomfort, just say to yourself . . .“This
too will also pass.” Be strong-minded when you fast!
Think of the wonderful results you are going to achieve
by fasting. Rejoice that you have been led to this great
natural cleansing and rejuvenation miracle.
At the end of every fast, the very first food that reaches
your taste buds should be a raw coleslaw cabbage salad – a
base of chopped cabbage, grated carrots and beets. For a
dressing try fresh lemon or orange squeezed over the salad.
This salad acts as “nature’s broom,” it sweeps your intestines
clean. It makes the muscles along the gastrointestinal tract
work hard. If you want more have a bowl of freshly stewed
(or salt-free canned) tomatoes. Stewed tomatoes are not
acid-forming except when prepared with white sugar or
hunks of refined, white bread. Or have a serving of delicious
steamed greens – such as kale, chard, collard, spinach or
beet tops with tomatoes and fresh garlic. Serve in bowls
and over greens sprinkle with Brewers Yeast (large) flakes, a
spray of Bragg Liquid Aminos, 3 tsp Bragg Organic Vinegar
and 2 tsp Bragg Organic Olive Oil. Try this – it’s delicious!
Remember, keep your meals simple and natural.
Please never break a fast with animal products such
as meat, milk, cheese, butter, fish or nuts or seeds. After
a 24 or 36 hour fast, wait until the second or third meal
before you eat the heavier foods and beans, brown rice,
potatoes, etc. Remember, we prefer you eat the vegetarian
proteins – they are healthier! Please read the important
“Foods to Avoid List,” on page 237 for your not-to-buy
guide when shopping.

Repeat these powerful affirmations when fasting:

I have this day put my body in the hands of God and
Mother Nature. I turn to the highest power for internal
purification and rejuvenation of body and soul.
• Every minute that I fast I am flushing dangerous
poisons that do great damage from my wonderful body.
Every hour that I fast I become happier, healthier and
have more energy and youthfulness.
• Hour by hour, my body is cleansing and purifying itself.
• When I fast I am using the same method for physical,
mental and spiritual purification that the greatest
spiritual leaders have used throughout the ages.
• I am in complete control of my body during this fast.
No false hunger pains will stop me from fasting! I will
carry my fast through to a successful conclusion
because I have total faith in God and Mother Nature!
Just remember, you must give instructions to all the
cells of your body with your total mind and heart. The
thoughts you send to your body are going to be carried
out by your cells. That is the reason I urge you to not
discuss your fasting program with relatives or friends.
Most would give you a negative reaction. Fasting is a
personal matter and please keep it that way!

Keep Your Spirits and Morale High

Please understand, even when you take a 1 day fast
you are cleansing and purifying your whole body. The
very thought that you are building a painless, tireless
and ageless body should be an incentive to keep your
morale high during your fast. Don’t allow self-pity or
negative thoughts to get in your mind when fasting.

A Swiss Doctor Was My Human Angel

After I was restored to a good state of health at Dr.
August Rollier’s Sanitarium in Leysen, Switzerland, I
started my regular fasting program – which I am proud
to say I have continued through all these wonderful years
since then! I fasted one 24 hour period weekly and 4
times a year at 3 month intervals, I fasted from 7 to 10
days – always on a distilled water fast. After I had been
on this fasting program for 5 years, it was during one of
my 10 day fasts that a great miracle happened to me!
I was at my family’s old homestead in Virginia. On
about the seventh day of a 10 day fast, I was out in a
canoe on the river leisurely enjoying the sunshine and
fresh air when suddenly, without warning, I doubled up
with stomach cramps. I thought I would never be able
to stand the pain! With great effort I got ashore and
then it happened. I had a terrific bowel evacuation! At
the end of this evacuation, I felt a heavy, cool sensation
in my rectum and out passed a 3 cup of the quicksilver
from the toxic Calomel that I took in my childhood.

Some Discomfort is Normal When Cleansing

Remember that as long as there is any toxic waste in
your circulation, you may feel some discomfort during
your fast. Soon as the Vital Force flushes these poisons
out through your kidneys, you will start to feel better.
Many times during a fast, old drugs that have been
buried in your system for years are loosened up and
flushed out of the body. Let me tell you of one of my
greatest experiences when I first started fasting. Now,
let’s go back to my early childhood diet. I was born and
reared in Virginia and I was fed a typically greasy, starchy,
fatty and sugary diet. My body was so filled with toxins
as a child that I had every known childhood disease:
mumps, measles, whooping cough . . . you name them
and I had them! Along with these childhood miseries, I
was given large amounts of a drug known as “Calomel”
– and this drug was filled with quicksilver (mercury)!

Your Kidneys – The Miracle Organs

Just think of it – each of the 2 kidneys in your body
have a million efficient filters. When the body is fasting,
the kidneys step up their work of detoxification. All of
the Vital Force and nervous energy of the body is now
working overtime to cleanse and heal your body, because
it’s not being used up in the laborious task of mastication,
digestion, metabolism and elimination. You have no idea
how powerful the Vital Force is in your body until you
experience this great fasting body renovation!

Your Kidneys – The Miracle Organs

Just think of it – each of the 2 kidneys in your body
have a million efficient filters. When the body is fasting,
the kidneys step up their work of detoxification. All of
the Vital Force and nervous energy of the body is now
working overtime to cleanse and heal your body, because
it’s not being used up in the laborious task of mastication,
digestion, metabolism and elimination. You have no idea
how powerful the Vital Force is in your body until you
experience this great fasting body renovation!

How to Break a 24 Hour Fast

Follow These Instructions Carefully!
Your 24 hour fast can be from lunch to lunch or from
dinner to dinner, as long as you abstain from all solid
foods. This also means no fruit or vegetable juices! This
is known as the absolute distilled water fast.
One exception to the 24 hour fast is to add equally one
teaspoon of raw honey (optional and diabetics can use
stevia) and one teaspoon Braggs Organic Raw Apple Cider
Vinegar or fresh lemon juice to at least 3 of your 8 to 10
glasses of distilled water. This acts as a mucus and toxin
dissolver, plus makes the water more palatable. This helps
flush debris out through the great natural filters of the
body – the kidneys. They play a vital part in your fast.
This is why it’s important during any fast to drink 8 to
10 glasses of pure, distilled water.
I have told you how important it is to save the urine
after a 24 hour fast. Just put it in a tightly sealed labeled
bottle and let it settle for several weeks. You will see with
your own eyes the poisons – such as mucus, salt crystals
and toxins – that have been flushed out of your body by
your miracle-working kidneys.

Sickness is Costly Big Business in America!

Who spends more money in the pursuit of health
than any other nation in the whole, wide world?
AMERICA DOES!
Who spends more money for doctors, nurses,
hospitals, surgery, drugs and health insurance?
AMERICA DOES!
Which nation has more “drives” to collect funds to
fight the many diseases that plague our population?
AMERICA DOES!
Who has more convalescent homes, mental clinics
and institutions than any other country in the world?
AMERICA DOES!
What nation spends the most money on magazine,
newspaper, TV and radio advertising promoting
“do it yourself,” over-the-counter drug medication?
AMERICA DOES!
What nation takes the most sleeping pills, diet
pills, laxatives, aspirin and other pain killers?
AMERICA DOES!
We even have children’s aspirin. Sadly, it seems they
need painkillers! Aspirin in any form – be it buffered,
plain or mixed with other compounds – masks the
problem instead of solving it. Pain is the body’s alarm!

Breaking Health Laws – You Pay Big Price!

Please understand that man cannot break a Natural Law.
He only breaks himself while attempting to break the
Natural Law. Can man break the law of gravity? Can man
jump off a 25 story building and live? No! This also applies
to Mother Nature’s Laws. Man is brainwashed into eating
the processed, devitalized foods that has propelled him
into a pitiful physical condition. Americans are so gullible
they believe the false propaganda passed out by big special
interests, saying Americans are healthy and long lived.
Sickness is Costly Big Business in America

Here is My Personal Fasting Program Which I Recommend for Bragg Students

I know the great benefits I have received from fasting,
and that goes for my whole family. Every week Patricia
and I take a 24 to 36 hour fast. We never miss this! In
addition we fast from 7 to 10 days, 4 times a year.
Over the many years that I have been following this
schedule, I have kept myself in superior health. I am a
human dynamo! I get more living out of 1 day than
most people get out of 5. I have unlimited energy for
work and play! I never get tired - sleepy, yes. But never
do I get that worn out, exhausted feeling. I keep myself
active mentally, physically and spiritually! I maintain a
heavy lecture schedule and I travel worldwide. I write
and have many duties to perform. But I still make time
for an enormous amount of vigorous physical activity.
All of my sports and play time is spent with youthful
men and women who don’t recognize calendar years
and who are ageless in body, mind and spirit as I am.
Otherwise, I keep far, far away from prematurely old
people because most of them are so negative! Sad facts –
millions have convinced themselves they are old and
tired! This the reason they are ready for the scrap heap!
Many died mentally years ago and have joined the halfalive
generation. Avoid this! Please don’t join them!
My daughter Patricia and I belong to hiking, tennis
and beach clubs, gyms, mountain climbing clubs and
dancing clubs. We love ballroom dancing and South
American dances like the samba, tango, etc. and fast
moving steps that give us a chance to be physically active
and mentally joyous. Try it – turn the music on and
dance! If needed, take lessons and learn – it’s fun! We
enjoy the Hawaiian dance – the Hula. When at home in
Hawaii, we give health buffet parties along with some
Hawaiian musical entertainment, singing and dancing.
When your body is cleansed by fasting and living a
naturally healthy life, you will discover you feel
wonderful all the time. This is because God and Mother
Nature intended people to be healthy, happy and wellbalanced;
free of fears, frustrations, stresses and strains!

Pre-Cleanse Diet Brings Better Fasting Results

If you prepare for a fast by eating a cleansing diet for 1
to 2 days, this can greatly facilitate the cleansing process.
Fresh variety salads, fresh vegetables and fruits and their
juices, as well as green drinks (alfalfa, barley, chlorophyll,
chlorella, spirulina, wheatgrass, etc.) stimulate waste
elimination. Live, fresh organic foods and juices can literally
pick up dead matter from your body and carry it away.
Following this pre-cleansing diet for a few days, then you
are now prepared and can start your liquid fast.

Short Fasts Need Good Nutrition and Good

I know that the wheels of progress grind slowly, but
surely. Here is my theory on the science of fasting. We
are dealing with human nature and there are many fears
in each of us. I believe that more people will experiment
with the science of fasting if they do short fasts. Many
people are willing to try a 24 or a 36 hour fast and, when
they find that they feel better and look better, they will
then attempt a 3 day fast because they now have more
confidence. The next thing you know, they will fast very
successfully for 7 to 10 days. Many of my students who
took several 10 day fasts had such good results that they
tried a 15 day fast. Some even went on to 21 day fasts
and others tried the full 30 day fast by themselves.
But they wisely started with the 24 hour fast and then
graduated to the longer fast. The more experience and
good results you gain, the stronger belief you will have
in fasting. If you have never fasted before, start with 24
or 36 hour fast each week. I urge you to be the judge of
the wonder-working miracle powers of the fast.
Then you may graduate to the 3 to 4 day fast and,
after that, to a 7 to 10 day fast that will make you very
proud of your willpower. You can accomplish a great
amount of internal cleansing on short fasts. Remember,
it is cumulative. The more you fast, the cleaner you
become inside. Just make sure that between fasts you
are faithfully living the good, Bragg Healthy Lifestyle!

Fasting Appreciated Worldwide

The German fasting resorts believe the ideal fast is
21 days. The French are in favor of not more than a 14
day fast. In England they feel a 30 day fast is best. In our
American fasting resorts, many of the fasts are supervised
from 14 to 30 days.
I have found that in foreign and American fasting
resorts, the directors are dedicated men and women who
have a thorough knowledge of fasting. They all have
been highly successful with people who have various
complicated physical problems.
Fasting is a great and wonderful science and there is
much to learn about it. I have been supervising fasts for
over 70 years. During these years I have faithfully fasted
and have enjoyed wonderful benefits! It is my honest
opinion that if anyone fasts over 10 days they should be
under the guidance of a health expert they can call.
I believe that the average person can fast 10 days
without any complications. The 10 day fast results in a
great amount of internal housecleaning. I sincerely hope
I am not putting any fearful thoughts in your mind about
the great science of fasting. There are thousands of people
around the world who supervise their own fasts and
some for even 20 or 30 days. When I speak on fasting at
the Bragg Health Crusades worldwide, I ask my students
how many of them have supervised their own fasts. I
found that thousands of Bragg followers have fasted 20
and 30 days or more with great results!
But, I still feel that if a person is going to take a 30
day fast, it is wise to be under the guidance of a health
expert, who knows how to control long fasts. They are
always ready to help you when the toxic poisons are
being eliminated more heavily. They might advise you
to break the fast, because they feel you may have
loosened enough toxic poisons for this particular fast.
Always be flexible, kind and loving to your body.
Healthy, healing dietary fibers are organic fresh vegetables, fruits, salads

Great Benefits From Short and Long Fasts

If you are ready to attempt a 21 or 30 day fast you
know now how to conduct the fast. You now have your
past fasting experience and knowledge to guide you! But,
personally, I feel that my weekly 24 to 36 hour fast and
my 7 to 10 day fasts 4 times a year is sufficient fasting for
me. I eat only 12 meals a week and sometimes less
because I never eat unless I have a genuine hunger!
Again let me state emphatically that fasting is a
science. Please do not force yourself into a long fast
because you think the long fast is going to do wonders,
unless you are under the strict supervision of a health
expert. And even the expert may decide that you would
benefit more from shorter fasts to first condition yourself
to a longer fast. Your 24 to 36 hour weekly fast, your 3 or
4 day fasts and your 7 to 10 day fasts will provide you
with the fasting experience you will definitely need
should you wish to try a longer fast later.
I have found in my research on fasting that even the
health experts disagree on how long one should fast to
get the very best results. Health opinions worldwide vary
on fasting lengths from 7 to 30 days. I personally don’t
believe in the longer fast unless it is really an emergency
– and then it is imperative that it be supervised by a
health expert. I have thousands of students worldwide
following this fasting program I’m presenting to you in
this book. They are delighted and satisfied with the
marvelous health benefits they enjoy!

The More Often You Fast The Longer You Will Be Able to Fast

I do not want to limit your fasting to 10 days. But I
do not advise fasting any longer than 10 days until you
have had, at the very least, four 10 day fasts spaced at 4
month intervals. With that experience behind you, now
you could graduate to a 15 day fast. By then you have
done a tremendous amount of internal house cleaning.

Why Should You Fast?

Most people spend the major part of their short lives
destroying their health! But those who have found the
truth have captained their lives to healthy living. It all
comes down to the law of compensation. You get out of
an effort just what you put into it! To me, to achieve
supreme health, vitality and agelessness is worth all effort
possible! I found what I want in life. I know that money
cannot buy health, long life and agelessness. I follow
my Bragg Healthy Lifestyle and I enjoy supreme health!
Every day we read about wealthy men and women
who are desperately ill, many of them dying long before
their time. There is no wealth that can impart or equal
health and agelessness. That is the reason I often tell
people that I am the richest man on earth. I am a health
multibillionaire! I have the greatest wealth a person can
have. I have Supreme Health 365 days of the year. I have
a painless, tireless and ageless body. No one gave me my
Health Wealth. I earned it by living The Bragg Healthy
Lifestyle and by always staying as close to Mother Nature
as possible in this polluted, poisoned world of today.

The Faster Will Gather Marvelous Experience

Once embarked on this sensible, logical program of
internal purification, you will be so imbued with the joys
of your new life that fasting will become a necessary part
of life itself. Day by day, while you watch the miracle of
rejuvenation taking place in your body and mind, you will
rejoice that you have been led to The Bragg Healthy
Lifestyle of living that will make you a healthier, happier
and better person every day of your life!

Shorter Fasts Are Better and Safer

Here again is another reason I do not believe in long
fasts unless they are carefully supervised by a health
expert. The average person is not only filled with toxic
poison from wrong food, air pollution, water pollution
and common table salt, but they also have a residue of
the many drugs they have consumed stored deep in the
organs of their bodies. So a long fast to cleanse one’s
body might sound good in theory but, in actual practice,
it is emphatically not the case!
In my personal experience, I have achieved greater
benefits from short fasts than I have by the long fasts,
even though I have supervised many long fasts. Starting
with a 24 to 36 hour fast weekly, I find that the faster
can really give himself a splendid internal house
cleaning. The person who wishes to attain supreme
vitality and agelessness can prepare for a 3 to 4 day fast
by following the “No Heavy Breakfast Plan” (I regard
fresh fruit as nutritional refreshment, not as a full meal)
combined with a program of eating only whole, natural,
organic foods for several months.
After about 4 months of the weekly fast and 4 to 6
fasts of from 3 to 4 days, a person would be ready for a 7
day fast. By this time, large amounts of toxic waste will
have been removed from the body by this series of
weekly and longer fasts, combined with The Bragg
Healthy Lifestyle of eating healthy organic fruits, veggies,
sprouts whole grains, seeds and nuts. Remember, it’s
important to drink 8-10 glasses of distilled water daily!
With a background of 6 months of internal cleansing,
the 7 day fast will prove quite simple. This first weeklong
fast will be a wonderful experience because the
internal purification the faster experiences are absolutely
tremendous! In several more months, this person will
be ready for a ten-day fast. Again this will cause a supercleansing
of every cell in the body.

How Long Should One Fast?

For a person who has no fasting experience, the
longest fast should never be over 10 days, unless they
are under the supervision of a health expert with fasting
experience. Fasting is the most natural method of
purifying the body and is truly a miracle! In my opinion,
it’s best to do shorter fasts for the first few months,
gradually working into longer fasts. This helps prevent
distress to your body by gently loosening and passing
the stored toxins out of the body.
A long fast must be supervised by an expert because
only they can best determine when a fast should be
broken. Sometimes even the experts cannot tell how long
a fast should last. When and how to break the fast is
determined by carefully watching how conditions in the
faster’s body change during the fast. The expert watches
to see how fast the body, kidneys, etc. are throwing off
mucus and toxins. They will examine the urine daily –
if too many toxins are being eliminated, causing a strain
on the kidneys, they will usually stop the fast.
Even the greatest experts won’t all agree with putting
a person on a 30 or 40 day fast. Often people plan a longer
fast and find toxins pouring out so quickly that it’s best
they do short fasts and not one big long fast. Sometimes
in the first 6 days, if too many toxic poisons were released
into their circulation, I felt it wise to have them stop the
fast and do another short fast in a few weeks.
I have heard unqualified people say, “the long fast is
best.” This I do not believe, because man is the sickest
creature on earth! None of God’s other creatures have
violated His nutritional laws as much as man; who eats
with little discretion towards his health and life!

Ten Common Sense Reasons Why You Should Only Drink Pure, Distilled Water!

There are over 12,000 toxic chemicals on the market today
. . . and 500 are being added yearly! Regardless of where
you live, in the city or on the farm, some of these
chemicals are getting into your drinking water.
• No one on the face of the earth today knows what effect
these chemicals could have upon the body as they blend
into thousands of different combinations. It is like making
a mixture of colors; one drop could change the color.
• The equipment hasn’t been designed to detect some of
these chemicals and may not be for many years to come.
• The body is made up of 70% water (shown on page 60).
Therefore, don’t you think you should be particular about
the type of water you drink to maintain your body?
• The Navy has been drinking distilled water for years!
• Distilled water is chemical and mineral free. Distillation
removes all the chemicals and impurities from water that
are possible to remove. If distillation doesn’t remove them,
there is no known method today that will.
• The body does need minerals . . . but it is not necessary
that they come from water. There is not one mineral in
water which cannot be found more abundantly in food!
Water is the most unreliable source of minerals because
it varies from one area to another. The food we eat – not
the water we drink – is the best source of organic minerals!
• Distilled water is used for intravenous feeding, inhalation
therapy, prescriptions and baby formulas. Therefore,
doesn’t it make common sense that it is good for everyone?
• Thousands of water distillers have been sold throughout
the United States and around the world to individuals,
families, dentists, doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and
government agencies. These and other informed, alert
consumers are helping protect their health by using only
pure, distilled water. Be wise – you do the same.
• With all of the chemicals, pollutants and other impurities
in our water, it only makes good common sense you
should clean up the water you drink Mother Nature’s
inexpensive way through distillation.

Bragg Family Uses Only Distilled Water

At our Bragg homes, distilled water is delivered in 5
gallon bottles for household use. I also have it at the
Bragg Santa Barbara office. Distilled water can be bought
almost everywhere. It is used for baby formulas, heart
and kidney patients and many other purposes.
Millions of homes across the nation have water
softeners for household uses, because hard water is not
good for washing clothes and it spots dishes. But please
don’t drink unhealthy water from water softeners! It’s
not a healthful drinking water. Drink only distilled water
exclusively for a year and you’ll never drink hard or
softened water again. When you fast, please use only
distilled water for greater cleansing and health. Read the
Bragg book – Water – The Shocking Truth for more info.

Bragg Family Uses Only Distilled Water

At our Bragg homes, distilled water is delivered in 5
gallon bottles for household use. I also have it at the
Bragg Santa Barbara office. Distilled water can be bought
almost everywhere. It is used for baby formulas, heart
and kidney patients and many other purposes.
Millions of homes across the nation have water
softeners for household uses, because hard water is not
good for washing clothes and it spots dishes. But please
don’t drink unhealthy water from water softeners! It’s
not a healthful drinking water. Drink only distilled water
exclusively for a year and you’ll never drink hard or
softened water again. When you fast, please use only
distilled water for greater cleansing and health. Read the
Bragg book – Water – The Shocking Truth for more info.

Distilled Water is Best for Your Health

Years ago, during an expedition to the Atlas mountains
of Morocco, I found vigorous people roaming the desert,
and the only water they drank was unpolluted rain water.
Every liquid prescription that is compounded in any
drug store the world over is prepared with distilled water.
It is not true that distilled water leaches the organic
minerals out of the body nor is it dead water. It is the
purest and safest water that man can drink!
Distilled water helps to dissolve the terrible, toxic
poisons that collect in people’s bodies. It passes through
the kidneys without leaving inorganic pebbles and
stones. If you wash your hair in rain (distilled) water
you will discover the softness of natural soft water.
No new water has been created on the face of the
earth since it was originally formed. Just as the same
energy is formed and reformed, so the same water is reused
over and over again by the miracle of Mother
Nature. Waters of the earth are purified by natural
distillation. The sun evaporates the water. It is collected
into clouds and the clouds become full and then we
have rain and dew . . . pure, perfectly clean water, one
of God’s and Mother Nature’s great miracles! Who dares
to say that they supply man with dead water! Distilled
water is the purest water on earth and it’s free of all
harmful inorganic minerals and toxic substances.
Over 70 years ago, I predicted that some day man
would need clean, pure water so desperately that great
government distillation plants would have to be installed
at the seas to convert the unlimited supply of salt water
into pure water for all purposes. I have lived to see my
prediction come true. Even in Santa Barbara, California
they had to build a plant during a long dry spell. In the
American Navy, there are huge aircraft carriers with five
thousand Navy personnel aboard. These ships cannot
carry enough land water so they distill sea water for the
men to drink and bathe in. Also big ocean cruise ships
distill sea water for their passengers’ use, bathing, etc.

Millions Drink Rain (Distilled) Pure Water!

By drinking distilled water, you would be joining
millions worldwide who drink unpolluted rain water.
Man evolved drinking rain water. In Bermuda, etc.,
where soil is so porous that water cannot be held in the
soil, people have special roofs to catch rain water so that
it drains into tanks under their houses or nearby.
The great castle of the powerful emperor Tiberius, who
ruled the world at the time of Christ, is located on the Isle
of Capri. It has a remarkable reservoir to catch rain water
inside the castle walls. Today, over 2000 years later, the
people of Capri still go there for water during a dry spell.
I have seen this with my own eyes, you can too!
Years ago, my Hollywood friend, the great actor
Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and I roamed the South Sea
Islands. During that trip, we came upon an island
inhabited by beautiful, healthy Polynesians who never
drank anything but distilled water, because the island
was surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. Sea water is
undrinkable because of its high salt content. Their island
was based on porous coral which could not hold water,
so they only had Mother Nature’s distilled water drinks
from rain water and delicious fresh coconut milk.
I have never seen any finer specimens of men or
women than these native South Sea Islanders! There were
several doctors on the yacht who thoroughly examined
the oldest people on these islands, and the heart doctor
stated that he had never examined such well-preserved
people in his life. They never celebrated birthdays, so they
were gloriously ageless, not only in years, but in body!
These older men performed as well in the vigorous native
dances as the younger men. These people were beautiful
specimens of humanity, and they all lived their lengthy
lives drinking only Mother Nature’s perfect distilled water

Hard, Inorganic Minerals Cause Problems!

Organic minerals are very vital in keeping us alive
and well. If we were cast away on an uninhabited island
where nothing was growing, we would starve to death.
Even though the soil beneath our feet contains 16
inorganic minerals, our bodies could not absorb them.
Only a living plant has the power to extract inorganic
minerals from the earth. No human can extract the
nourishment from inorganic minerals.
Many years ago, I was on an expedition to China
when one part of the country was suffering from drought
and famine. I saw with my own eyes poor, starving
people heating earth and eating it for want of food. They
died horrible deaths because they could not get one bit
of nourishment from the inorganic minerals of the earth.
For years I have heard people say that certain waters
were rich in all the minerals. What minerals are they
talking about? Inorganic or organic? These are inorganic
and they are burdening their bodies with these inert
minerals, which may cause the development of stones
in the kidneys, gallbladder and stone-like acid crystals
in the arteries, veins, and other parts of the body.
I was reared in Virginia where the drinking water is
called hard water. It is heavily saturated with inorganic
minerals, especially sodium, iron and calcium. I saw many
of my elders die of kidney troubles. Nearly all the people
were prematurely old because the inorganic minerals would
collect on the inner walls of their arteries and veins, causing
many to die from hardening of the arteries, strokes and
heart attacks. One of my uncles died at Johns Hopkins
hospital when he was only 48. The autopsy doctors stated
that his arteries were as hard as clay pipes because they
were so stiff and corroded with inorganic minerals.
Yet you will hear people say, “Distilled water is dead
water. A fish cannot live in it.” Of course a fish cannot live
in freshly distilled water for any length of time, because it
needs the vegetation that grows in rivers, lakes and seas.
Imagine you were shipwrecked while on a passenger ship
going to Hawaii and you became a castaway in a lifeboat
for days on the open sea. If the only water available was rain
water, would you say, “Rain water is dead distilled water,
I won’t drink it?” No, you would never say that. Of course
you would drink pure rain water and survive until rescued!

Why I Drink Only Pure, Distilled Water!

When I refer to fasting in this book, I constantly make
the statement, “Eat absolutely no food and drink distilled
water exclusively.” Distilled water is pure H2O – which
means it’s a compound of 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part
oxygen. If you drink rain water, or the fresh juices of
fruits and vegetables, remember that all of this liquid
has been distilled by Mother Nature. If you drink rain
water or snow water, there are no inorganic minerals in
it. It is 100% mineral-free. If you drink fruit and vegetable
juices, you are drinking distilled water plus certain
nutrients such as fruit sugars, organic minerals and
vitamins. But if you drink lake, river, well or spring water,
you are drinking undistilled water, plus the inorganic
minerals that the water has picked up. Some of this water
is known as hard water, meaning it has high inorganic
mineral concentrations that can cause health problems.
Now, let me give you a short lesson in chemistry.
There are two kinds of chemicals - inorganic and organic.
The inorganic chemicals are inert, which means that
they cannot be absorbed into the tissues of the body.
Our bodies are composed of 16 organic minerals
which all come from that which is living or was alive.
When we eat an apple or any other fruit or vegetable,
that substance is living. Each has a certain survival time
after it has been picked before spoiling. We prefer the
vegetarian diet, but the same applies to animal foods,
fish, milk, cheese and eggs if you eat them.

The 70% Watery Human

The amount of water in the human body, averaging 70%, varies
considerably and even from one part of the body to another area
(illustration on right). A lean man may hold 70% of his weight in body
water, while a woman – because of her larger proportion of water-poor
fatty tissues – may be only 52% water. The lowering of the water
content in the blood is what triggers the hypothalamus, the brain’s
thirst center, to send out its familiar urgent demand for a drink of water.

Water Percentage in Various Body Parts:

Teeth .....................10% Lungs ............... 80%
Bones .....................22% Brain................. 75%
Cartilage ................ 55% Bile ................... 86%
Red blood corpuscles ...... 68.7% Plasma ............. 90%
Liver .................... 71.5% Blood ................ 83%
Muscle tissue ..............75% Lymph .............. 94%
Spleen ..................... 75.5%

This chart shows why 8 glasses of water daily is important.

Here are Some Powerful Juice Combinations:

1. Beet, celery, alfalfa sprouts
2. Cabbage, celery and apple
3. Cabbage, cucumber, celery,
tomato, spinach and basil
4. Tomato, carrot and mint
5. Carrot, celery, watercress,
garlic and wheatgrass
6. Grapefruit, orange and lemon
7. Beet, parsley, celery, carrot,
cabbage and garlic
8. Beet, celery, dulse and carrot
9. Cucumber, carrot and parsley
10. Watercress, cucumber, garlic
11. Asparagus, carrot, and mint
12. Carrot, celery, parsley, onion,
cabbage and sweet basil
13. Carrot and coconut milk
14. Carrot, broccoli, lemon, cayenne
15. Carrot, cauliflower, rosemary
16. Apple, carrot, radish, ginger
17. Apple, pineapple and mint
18. Apple, papaya and grapes
19. Papaya, cranberries and apple
20. Leafy greens, broccoli, apple
21. Grape, cherry and apple
22. Watermelon (include seeds)

Juicing has come a long way since Paul C. Bragg imported
the first hand operated vegetable-fruit juicer from Germany
and introduced juice therapy to America. Before this, juice
was pressed by hand using cheesecloth. Juices are now
considered an ideal health beverage worldwide!

Juice Fasting – Introductory Road to Water Fasting

Fasting has been rediscovered through juice fasting as a
simply delicious and easy means of cleansing and purifying
and rebuilding health and vitality.
To fast (abstain from food) is from the Old English
word fasten or to hold firm. It’s a means to commit oneself
to the task of finding inner strength through cleansing
of the body, mind and soul. Throughout history the
world’s greatest church leaders, philosophers and sages
including Socrates, Plato, Buddha and Gandhi have
enjoyed fasting and preached its many miracle benefits.
Juice bars are springing up everywhere and juice fasting
has become “in” with the Stars of Hollywood. The number
of Stars who believe in the power and effectiveness of
juice and water fasting is growing. Some are: Steven
Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Kim Basinger, Alec Baldwin,
Christie Brinkley, Dolly Parton, Donna Karan, etc., and
author Danielle Steel. They say fasting helps balance their
lives physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally.
Although a distilled water fast is best, an introductory
liquid juice fast can offer people an opportunity to give
their intestinal systems restful, cleansing relief from the
commercial, high-fat, sugar, salt, protein and “fast foods”
diets that too many Americans exist on daily.
Organic raw live fruit and vegetable juices can be
purchased fresh from many health stores. You can also
prepare these healthy juices yourself using a good home
juicer. When juice fasting, it’s best to dilute the juice with
3 distilled or purified water. This list gives you delicious
varieties. With vegetable and tomato combinations try
adding a dash of Bragg Liquid Aminos or herbs. Non-fast
days, try some of the nutritious green powders (barley,
chlorella, spirulina, etc.) to create a powerful health drink.
When using herbs in these drinks, use 1 to 2 fresh leaves
or a pinch of dried herbs. A pinch of Dulse (seaweed) –
rich in protein, iodine and iron – is delicious with
vegetable juices (also sprinkled on salads, veggies, etc.).

Are You Now Ready to Fast, Detox and Get Healthy For A Long, Wonderful Life

If you are convinced, without reservation that fasting
is a time to get detoxed and healthy, then you’re ready.
Remember, when you tell your conscious and your
subconscious mind you’re going to fast for internal
purity you set things in motion for success! You have
told every cell in your body that a fast is going to improve
your health. Your body’s cells will accept this command.
Start with a 24 hour distilled water fast. During these
24 hours you are going to put nothing into your stomach
except distilled water. If you eat fruit with this, it is not
a fast; it is a fruit diet. If you drink fruit or vegetable
juices during this 24 hour period it ceases to be a
complete fast, and instead becomes either a vegetable
or fruit juice fast. I want you to bear this in mind: a
complete fast is nothing allowed in the stomach except
distilled water! Your first fast may be easy or it may have
some rough spots. You may fast from lunch to lunch or
dinner to dinner, as long as you abstain from food for
an entire 24 hours. If you are accustomed to coffee, tea,
beer or alcohol drinks, you might have reactions . . .
one typical reaction appears in the form of a headache.
Why does this happen? Because the cells of your body
have conditioned themselves to regular dosages of a
stimulant. When you take the stimulant away from the
nerves and the cells there is bound to be a reaction. But
remember, this fast is going to help break that stimulant
habit, because during the 24 hour distilled water fast
you are flushing many of the buried poisonous residues
out of your body through your eliminative organs.
During their 24 hour fast, most people can carry on
their regular duties, even though they may have a little
discomfort. There may be some turbulence in the stomach
but, all in all, it should go smoothly and successfully if
you make your mind be master of your flesh. You are giving
the commands to your body from your higher brain cells.
You’re not going to be dragged down to the level of the
lower stomach cells. Remember it’s important everyday,
especially fast days, to drink ample water. Get started!

Keeping Internally Clean is Critical

Sickness and premature ageing are no mystery. You
are punished by your bad habits, not for them! If you
keep stuffing food that cannot be handled in your over
loaded digestive tract, it then rots, putrefies and poisons
your body’s billions of cells. You become prematurely
old, sick, and weak because you have not learned how
to keep your body healthy and clean inside! The secret
of health and long life can be summed up in three words:
“Keep Clean Inside!” Etch these words of wisdom deep on
the blackboard of your brain! Repeat them over and over
again as an affirmation . . . “Keep Clean Inside!”
Fasting is the best and most natural way of cleansing,
purifying and rejuvenating your body because it is Mother
Nature’s natural method. Nobody can do it for you. It is a
personal matter. It costs you nothing but a strong, positive
willpower! Remember, woe to the weak. Life is the survival
of the fittest . . . and fasting is a program of self-preservation!

Americans Love Social Eating!

The main reason why 65% to 70% of Americans are
overweight is because eating has become a fun, social
gorging event! People eat breakfast, eat at the coffee
break, eat at lunch and eat at their afternoon coffee break.
They eat a large dinner and long before the big dinner
can be handled by the digestive system they are eating
again, plus drinking alcohol, colas or coffee while
watching TV. No wonder they are constantly tired! It’s
because they enervate themselves by exhausting their
Vital Force. Even the healthiest person only generates
so much Vital Force daily and, if by over-eating habits
or other bad habits you exhaust your Vital Force, then
there is not sufficient energy for the needed work of
mastication, digestion, metabolism and elimination.
What happens? There is not enough Vital Force to
flush the waste out of the body, so this stockpiles and
concentrates and that’s how you build autointoxication.
Your troubles and premature ageing start right here!

Healthy Eating Habits Keep You Youthful

Around noon or so we will eat our main meal of the
day. We start with a large delicious salad (recipe pg. 231).
After the salad we have one cooked yellow vegetable –
such as a baked yam or carrots – one green vegetable,
such as Swiss chard, kale, mustard greens, broccoli,
zucchini, squash or green beans – and some type of
vegetable protein. We enjoy tofu, beans, lentils and raw
unsalted nuts of all kinds and seeds, such as sunflower,
pumpkin, sesame, etc. (Vegetable Protein Chart pg. 233).
Patricia and I have earned this meal through exercise
and activity. Now our bodies are ready to send the
digestive juices and internal secretions to get the full
nourishment and energy out of this natural food. The
mouth and stomach digestive juices are abundant. Extra
benefit – regular exercise, ample fruits and salads
promote good elimination. This program of 12 meals a
week, 2 meals daily, 6 days a week doesn’t burden and
exhaust the body’s digestive system and body’s bowel
eliminative powers (we fast for 24 to 36 hour period
weekly). On this Bragg Healthy Lifestyle program, you
don’t overeat, you educate your bowels to move soon
upon arising and usually you have a bowel evacuation
within an hour after lunch and an hour after dinner.
Most people are sick or half sick most of the time. It
is our opinion that they enervate and overwork their
body and exhaust themselves in trying to burn up all
those extra calories from all the excess foods they
consume!!! We don’t overeat and the only exception we
ever make for snacking between meals is to have some
luscious, juicy organic fruit. In mid-afternoon, we have
a juicy organic apple or fresh pineapple, mango or
papaya. When melons are in season, we find nothing
more refreshing than sweet, ripe melons; our favorites
are watermelon, cantaloupe, casaba and honeydew.

You Must Earn Your Food by Exercising

You can plainly see that healthy eating is a matter of
conditioning and habit. I haven’t eaten breakfast for over
65 years. I get up early every morning. When at our
Hollywood home, I drive to the beautiful Griffith Park
mountain trail and hike for several hours up to the top of
Mt. Hollywood and top it off by running down the
mountain. If I am at our home near Malibu, Patricia and I
take long hikes and runs on the beach. I am not only a
summer swimmer, but a year-round ocean swimmer. At our
desert home, we hike the hills and ride our bicycles. After
several hours of vigorous exercise, we return home to enjoy
our fruit meal and pep drinks. Now we are ready to do our
best creative work, planning Bragg Health Crusades, writing
articles for health magazines or writing our health books
to inspire and guide you to become healthier!

No Heavy Breakfast Plan is Best

Another reason why I’m a believer and follower of
the “No Heavy Breakfast Plan” is because the big breakfast
can drain most people of the precious energy gathered
by the recharging night’s sleep. In the morning, your
energy – physical, mental, and spiritual – should be at its
highest. With this new energy the body has created, you
can do great creative and physical work. Famous radio
talk host Dr. Dean Edell agrees. Web: www.healthcentral.com
I have shown elementary school, high school and
college students that they can do their greatest studying
early in the morning on an empty stomach. Most
students eat an evening meal, which is their heaviest
meal of the day, and then they try to study.
It’s a terrific effort to concentrate and study after
eating a huge dinner! Why does this happen? It seems
that the mind just will not work after a heavy meal. But
give these same students a good night’s rest, get them
up early in the morning and keep food out of them for
2 or 3 hours and they will become brilliant students.
I have taught this “No Heavy Breakfast Plan” to
millions of our health followers and readers world-wide.
Here’s the logical reason why I don’t believe in a heavy
breakfast. A heavy meal requires most of the total nerve
energy of the body to handle digestion, thus the mind
becomes enervated, making people dull, sleepy and
leaving the precious nerve energy at its lowest ebb.
Let’s look at it from another standpoint. Through
long years of misinformation, people have been told,
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It gives
you the strength, the energy and the vitality to do a
hard morning’s work, either physically or mentally.” This
is absolutely erroneous! It is not a true scientific fact.
When you eat a heavy breakfast, through reflex action
you feel full and satisfied, but you do not gain strength.
It takes hours for this food to be processed by the
digestive system before you can gain any energy or
vitality from a big breakfast. Digestion is a most highly
complicated process. Every item of food in the breakfast
has to be broken down into fine nutrient fragments so
that the cells of the body are fed.