FIRST PERSON
Patricia Bragg BY NANCY R ANSOHOFF PATRICIA BR AGG, N.D., PH.D., didn’t get the memo that says you’re supposed to slow down as you age. As CEO and president of Santa Barbara-based Bragg Live Food Products, Dr. Patricia Bragg oversees the company started by her father, Dr. Paul C. Bragg, in 1912. A dynamic and diminutive disciple of healthy living, Dr. Bragg practices what she preaches, exuding youthful energy at an age when she is, as she says, “approaching my ninth decade.” When Paul C. Bragg was a teenager, he contracted tuberculosis. He developed a healthy diet and exercise program that he believed allowed him to regain his health. He became a self-proclaimed health
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crusader, spreading the gospel of a healthy lifestyle, which included Bragg food products sold in the first-ever health food stores. The company’s products, including the popular Apple Cider Vinegar, 24 Organic Herbs & Spices Sprinkle, Liquid Aminos and Nutritional Yeast Seasoning—all made with organic and non-GMO ingredients— are now sold in health food stores and supermarkets all over the world. We recently caught up with Dr. Bragg (it wasn’t easy) at Bragg Organic Farm, an idyllic 120-acre spread in Winchester Canyon in Goleta. The farm serves as headquarters for the family-owned company, as well as for Bragg Health Foundation,
which sponsors and funds community health education lectures, seminars and outreach programs; supports health science research; and provides scholarships to students pursuing naturopathic medicine. The farm buzzes with activity, as 54 employees, including farm staff, go about their business in well-kept buildings connected by flower-lined paths. This is a teaching farm—groups stroll on guided tours (by appointment only) through the organic vegetable and herb gardens, where school children glean tips for healthy eating. Happy chickens roam in their spacious pen, and birdhouses abound (Dr. Bragg feeds the birds daily). A small duck-dotted spring-fed pond adjoins a tiki-hut-style event center, which is available to healthrelated nonprofits. The farm’s orchards include 3,300 apple, lemon, pomegranate, apricot and avocado trees, whose bounty
PHOTOS: COURTESY BRAGG LIVE FOODS
The Queen of Healthful Habits
Above: Dr. Patricia Bragg teaches at the Boys & Girls Club. Left, Bragg in a rare, quiet moment.