Light food

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Light nutrition or Breatharianism is a name for an esoteric concept, according to which the energy necessary for life should be obtained from subtle energy according to its followers . This should make it possible to survive without solid and liquid food . From a scientific point of view, such claims are implausible. Proponents of this idea ignore the biological fact that humans, like all other mammals and animals, are generally heterotrophic organisms and can not use light for photosynthesis . The explanations given by you can be seen as deceit or error, such as underestimating the amount of energy intake necessary for survival, incorrect assessment of the amount of food actually consumed, neglecting the nutritional energy supplied in liquids or unconscious food intake, for example when sleepwalking. A permanent renunciation of solid and liquid food inevitably leads to death due to biological conditions.

history

Reports of people allegedly eating little or no food have been around for centuries. The Swiss hermit Niklaus von Flüe (1417–1487) is said to have consumed nothing in the last 19 years of his life except water and the Eucharist . In the 19th century, hunger artists were popular in Europe who publicly exhibited prolonged foodlessness. The best-known representatives of this “art” were Giovanni Succi and Wilhelm Bode alias Ricardo Sacco. Reports of fraud led to a decline in the popularity of starvation in the 20th century.

The light food was best known through the Australian Ellen Greve, who calls herself Jasmuheen . She claims that she has not needed any food in the traditional sense since 1993, but for social reasons and in very small quantities to eat a little something now and then. In a 21-day "light nourishment process" proposed by her, the body should supposedly adjust to no longer need any solid food or liquid, i.e. to only feed on "light". This 21-day “light nourishment process” stipulates, among other things, that nothing should be eaten or drunk continuously for seven days and only drunk on the following fourteen days. At the end of the 21 days you can eat normally again. From this point in time it should be possible through the process and with the help of “energy beings” to forego “solid” food. So far Greve has not been able to prove her theses. In 1999, in a self-experiment under controlled conditions, she was unable to provide any evidence that the postulated intake of “life energy” can replace solid food. The experiment was terminated after four days because of the progressive dehydration and the significant weight loss.

Several people have already been killed by applying Greve's theories. In her first book, Greve distances herself from any responsibility for damage to health. From 2004, however, instead of the 21-day “light nourishment process”, she recommended the “gentle ways to light nourishment”. The change from solid food to subtle life energy should take place very slowly over the years.

In 2003 and 2010, reports of the investigation by the Indian yogi Prahlad Jani made headlines around the world. Jani stated that she had not eaten or drunk for decades. Both studies were described by critics as unscientific, they were not scientifically published.

In September 2010, the Austrian documentary film In the Beginning was light , the theme of light food. In the film, the filmmaker Peter-Arthur Straubinger visits people who claim to eat light food, questions esotericists, doctors and scientists and looks for explanations of how light food could work. Contrary to established science, the film takes the view that light nutrition as a phenomenon actually exists. The film and Straubinger's statements were discussed controversially in the Austrian media. Critics rate the film as anti-enlightenment and manipulative and accuse Straubinger of handling the subject irresponsibly.

Deaths

In March 1997, a then 31-year-old from Munich died of a circulatory collapse after a radical fast.

A 53-year-old New Zealander died in June 1998 after a week of fasting from a stroke caused by fluid loss. The 48-year-old Australian Verity Linn was found dead by hikers in September 1999 at a lake with an emaciated body. Her diary showed that Linn had gone through a light feeding process.

In April 2012, the Tages-Anzeiger reported on the case of a Swiss woman who, after watching the film In the Beginning was Light , decided to feed on light and as a result died of starvation.

Research by the NDR revealed that a 22-year-old German died on the Caribbean island of Dominica at the end of 2017 , who had fasted before he left. According to witness reports, he fasted there for days again and told family and friends that he wanted to feed on light. Shortly before he died, he was found undressed in a clearing in the rainforest by a local, but could not be saved by him. The island's chief prosecutor confirmed that he had fasted before his death and that this likely resulted in his death.

Medical evaluation

The 21-day “light feeding process” proposed by Greve calls for neither eating nor drinking for seven days. Obviously and medically proven, there is a high risk of dying of thirst . From the third day without fluid intake, the risk of fatal dehydration increases , so that damage to the kidneys and even kidney failure must be expected. How many days can be survived completely without water depends on the basal metabolic rate and the ambient temperature. Coma patients who lost their water and food supply survived between 10 and 14 days. Inmate Andreas Mihavecz, who was forgotten in a cell, survived 18 days without solid or liquid food. Only the moisture on the walls of the cell served him as a minimal source of water.

According to experts, a healthy adult can survive around 50 to 80 days of foodlessness with sufficient water intake; this period can be further extended in obese people. It is known from observations on hunger strikers that they died of starvation after 50 to 60 days of lack of food .

Greve claims in the context of her "light nutrition theory" that it is not necessary to consume food or liquid as soon as the body has got used to the supposed "light nutrition" in a process of several weeks. A proof for this hypothesis could not be given so far. Observers also report seeing them eating. Greve does not deny this herself. Followers of their teaching, which was very popular in Germany, say they do not consume solid food, but instead feed on liquid food. In principle, it is possible to consume the nutrients and food energy necessary for life over a very long period of time through liquids (fruit juices, milk , soups, "astronaut food " ). This is practiced, for example, when feeding with a nasogastric tube even in unconscious or comatose patients for up to several years in clinics or at home. However, the complete renunciation of drinking water leads to a life-threatening situation within a few days, as Greve experienced herself in 1999 during a self- experiment monitored by camera teams when she became increasingly dehydrated . In addition, she lost weight due to the food inflammation and suffered speech disorders.

Michael Werner is a well-known "light eater" from the German-speaking area who, according to his own statements, has been living from "light food" since 2001. Werner was accompanied and examined under controlled conditions for ten days by the Institute for Complementary Medicine at the University of Bern. During this time he only consumed fluids that had little or no physiological calorific value. Werner lost an average of 0.26 kg per day in body weight and physical performance decreased during the self-experiment. The study published in 2008 comes to the conclusion that Werner's claim that he can do without conventional food has been refuted. Both Greve and Werner admitted themselves that they had not completely given up food, they had eaten now and then. The Viennese nutritionist Sonja Schwinger sees the phenomenon of light nutrition as a rather different subjective perception. In their opinion, it is possible that some “light eaters” believe that they do not eat anything, but that we do so anyway.

The subjective experience that a "subtle energy" would keep the body alive with an increase in well-being can be explained by a neurohormonal change triggered by fasting , through which the nutritional deficiency situation can subjectively be better tolerated. Nonetheless, permanent food and inadequate water supplies lead to death.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b cf. Berit Uhlmann: Darben without scars? “They suffered well during Lent: legends of ascetics who live only on air and faith. But how long can a person actually go hungry? ”Sueddeutsche.de of February 4, 2008
  2. ↑ Peter Payer: A Little History of Hunger Art: The Most Breadless of All Arts ( Memento of October 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Wiener Zeitung, December 14, 2001.
  3. ↑ a b TV documentary about Jasmuheen's self-experiment , Australian version of the TV program 60 Minutes , 1999
  4. ↑ Quotation: ... In her book 'Living on Light', Jasmuheen tries to animate people worldwide to follow her drastic nutrition rules in order to boost their quality of life. Several deaths have been reported as a fatal consequence ... P. Heusser, U. Wolf, HM Vonwiller, N. Messerli, K. Laederach-Hofmann: Nutrition with 'light and water'? In strict isolation for 10 days without food - a critical case study. Research Komplementmed. 2008 Aug; 15 (4): 203-9. PMID 18787329 .
  5. ↑ A. Wolfsgruber: Light, Air and Corpses. In: Focus 29, 1999
  6. ↑ Tom Walker and Judith O'Reilly: 3 deaths in connection with the 'light food cult. In: The Sunday Times of September 26, 1999 (English)
  7. ^ Guardian: India's man who lives on sunshine
  8. ↑ Details on the film In the beginning was the light ( memento from October 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture, accessed on October 10, 2010
  9. ↑ derStandard: As valuable as a small fake , September 22, 2010
  10. ↑ Diepresse: Schwere Kost Lichtnahrung , September 18, 2010
  11. ↑ Specifically: The service magazine ( Memento from September 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) ORF, September 24, 2010.
  12. ↑ a b Hugo Stamm: Nourished by light - until death . In: Tages-Anzeiger . April 27, 2018, ISSN 1422-9994 ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed March 15, 2019]). 
  13. ↑ Hugo Stamm : Nourished by light until death. In: Tages-Anzeiger from April 25, 2012
  14. ↑ Hristio Boytchev, Christian Deker: Die Lichtnahrung , Panorama - Die Reporter on NDR.de , March 12, 2019
  15. ↑ Radical fasting: German is said to have died because he only consumed light. March 13, 2019, accessed on March 15, 2019 (German).
  16. ↑ NDR research: German apparently wanted to feed on light - now he's dead , focus.de , March 13, 2019
  17. ↑ German "fed" only on light and died , kurier.at , March 13, 2019
  18. ↑ a b Rolf Degen: Give up the spoon completely! In: Tabula. Journal of Nutrition. No. 2 (April 2003), p. 10 f .; PDF online
  19. ^ Scientific American: How long can a person survive without food? , November 8, 2004
  20. ↑ Officials forgot prisoners in the cell: Condemned , Hamburger Abendblatt , November 6, 1979
  21. ^ W. Siegenthaler: Clinical Pathophysiology. Thieme, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-13-449609-7 .
  22. ↑ Face behind food-free teaching. Accessed June 5, 2010.
  23. ↑ a b Die Presse : Fasting for Advanced: The Light Eaters. February 20, 2010
  24. ↑ Michael Werner, Thomas Stöckli, Jakob Bösch. Living through light nutrition: a scientist's report. AT Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-03800-229-1 .
  25. ↑ P. Heusser, U. Wolf u. a .: Nutrition with 'light and water'? In strict isolation for 10 days without food - a critical case study. In: Researching complementary medicine (2006). Volume 15, Number 4, August 2008, pp. 203-209, ISSN  1661-4127 . doi: 10.1159 / 000148650 . PMID 18787329 .
  26. ↑ Gerald Huether: Neurobiological Effects and Psychological Effects of Fasting