Bernarr Macfadden (1868 – 1955) was a famous physical culturist and an advocate of natural food, natural treatment of diseases as well as physical fitness & outdoor exercise. Unlike conventional wisdom, Macfadden proposed a diet high in vegetables and fruit and low in meat and was a big fan of fasting. He even went to such lengths as to photograph and show his body before and after fasts in order to prove the positive effect on his body.
Macfadden and his five daughters doing a handstand during a radio show
Bernarr lived a controversial life in his endeavor to promote a healthy lifestyle without pill supplements and diet without processed foods. He was arrested on multiple occasions on obscenity charges, as he was promoting nudity and open love, and he was even denounced by the medical establishment.
Bernarr Macfadden at the age of 65
Hip Exercise by Bernarr Macfadden
Apart from publishing many books like Vitality Supreme and Fasting Hydropathy Exercise, Bernarr founded Physical Culture magazine where he spent next 13 years as an editor.