And this month's Darwin Award goes to:
Naveena Shine says she believes it is possible for human beings to survive without food and is conducting what she describes as an experiment to prove it.
The 65-year-old, originally from Birmingham in the UK, has been consuming just water and "one, maybe two cups of tea a day" for the past 41 days, losing 30lbs in the process. Other people have previously claimed to be able to survive without food and and water, although no one has ever proven it to be possible and some have died attempting it.
Dr Ronald Hoffman, medical director of the Hoffman Center and host of a weekly health talk podcast, said it was "delusional to think that you can escape the laws of biology".
"Plants have what are called choroplasts that contain chlorophyll and they have the ability to capture energy from sunlight," Hoffman said. "Humans don't have cholorphyll or chloroplasts. No humans do. It is impossible for a human to have that.
"Therefore they have to derive energy from external sources, that can be either fat or protein or carbohydrates, but it can't be sunlight."
Hoffman said if Shine continues to not eat food her organs will eventually fail and she will die.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/14/living-on-light-without-food
Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)Hardison: Oh, we could inject her brain with some contrast dye and have it pool into her cranial cavity but there might be some side effects.
Parker: Like what?
Hardison: Organ failure, death, deathlike symptoms.
Parker: I vote for plan B.
DetlefK
(16,455 posts)It has to be sunlight for very conclusive, spiritual reasons I don't need to mention here.
Rod Walker
(187 posts)Seems like people believing in this sort of thing is something of a self-correcting problem, mind you.
valerief
(53,235 posts)skepticscott
(13,029 posts)for acting on her deeply held beliefs? Who does he think he is, telling anyone else that what they believe is wrong?
Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)But I must not call him a bigot, for calling someone a bigot on DU is worse than posting bigotry.
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)there is a "sneer at religion", by all means do so.
Or is this another of your acknowledged "exaggerations"?
Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)If he pretends he is not sneering at religion, then he is not being wholly honest.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)you'll be banned here, and perhaps from DU entirely given your disturbing disposition toward abusive, intolerant behavior.
Address the topic of the thread (is this woman delusional? can a person go without eating for 100 days?) and stop attacking individuals.
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)But if you'd like me to explain what I was talking about, just ask, and I'll be happy to. Lacking that, I'll thank you not to ignorantly mischaracterize what I'm saying.
EvolveOrConvolve
(6,452 posts)Including those silly claims made by religion.
You call it sneering, we call it the truth. Hurts, don't it?
Response to Fortinbras Armstrong (Reply #5)
Iggo This message was self-deleted by its author.
Logical
(22,457 posts)trotsky
(49,533 posts)And she was cheating, taking at least a supplement containing sugar. Lots of creative excuses and rationalizations at the site.
So after all, nothing to see here, just another sad loony .
dimbear
(6,271 posts)Next case.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)https://www.livingonlight.co/end-of-experiment.html
There are many, sometimes complex, reasons why I am choosing to do this. I talk about them on the current YouTube. The overt reason is that on that day the phones and internet will be cut off and I have nothing to pay for the space I am in. In practical terms I cannot continue. However, I see money as simply energy and symbolic for many other things. There is nothing like the black and white clarity of money for bringing important messages into our lives.
WovenGems
(776 posts)Not one living thing that has ever called Earth home lived only on sunlight. And don't think "but plants do". The lawn has more sense than this Darwin Award honorable mention gets.
GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)uppityperson
(115,871 posts)https://www.facebook.com/notes/naveena-shine/day-44-sunday-16th-june/137795256423824
There are many, sometimes complex, reasons why I am choosing to do this. I talk about them on the current YouTube (#24). The overt reason is that on that day the phones and internet will be cut off and I have nothing to pay for the space I am in. In practical terms, I cannot continue. However, I see money as simply energy and symbolic for many other things. There is nothing like the black and white clarity of money for bringing important messages into our lives.
LiberalAndProud
(12,799 posts)Huh?
trotsky
(49,533 posts)Then, like food, she should have been able to manifest it though quantum willpower.
That's the thing with true believers though, even with facts staring them straight in the face (or the stomach), they will cling to their beliefs instead.
Creationists, astrologers, alt-medders, anti-vaxxers, newage nuts like this - doesn't matter.
On edit: you know, if we skeptics were truly evil, we could have taken up a collection to pay her bills so she could continue her project.
discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,578 posts)...on sale, $2.50 a case.
...on sale, $3.79 a box.
Dementia as a diet, priceless.