When I miss a meal, I am struck by fatigue and hunger pangs which combine to create an awful mood and severe desperation to eat anything I can get my hands on.

When a Breatharianist misses all three meals, every single day, they don’t flinch.

The last time Michael Werner, a 58-year-old German professor has eaten was six and a half years ago. He survives solely on liquids and sunlight, which he claims provide him with all of the nutrients and energy that he needs.

Sound a lot like starvation or anorexia to you? Yeah, me too.

Despite my intial repulsion, Werner and Breatharianists (also called Light Nutritionists) worldwide claim that their method of life is both natural and healthy.

Michael Werner, a doctor of chemistry, has an average body weight and believes that the key to his unusual diet lies within his mindset. Dr. Werner even goes so far as to claim that those starving in Africa would be able to survive on sun and liquids alone if their minds were not conditioned to believe that they are going to starve without a steady supply of food.

Despite Dr. Werner’s repeated justifications of Breatharianism, I find it hard to believe that millions of starving people in Africa would be frolicking in the sun and carrying on normal lives if they only decided to not be hungry anymore. I’m sure people that have been starving for years have been able to build up some type of mental tolerance against their hunger- and obviously it isn’t keeping them alive.

Werner claims that initially easing into Breatharianism is painful, but after a three week period, one becomes accustomed to “recieving nutrients” from sun and liquids alone.
Of course, a person’s stomach will shrink and they will cease to desire food after a three week period of starvation. This leads to the obvious question-Is Breatharianism just a new fangled eating disorder?

Many acclaimed followers of breatharianism, including founder Wiley Brooks have been caught in the height of their publicity ordering or consuming food and a number of Breatharianists have fallen victim to the natural effects of anorexia and ultimately died from the practice. Real healthy, right?

What I’d like to ask Dr. Werner is what happens when it rains. What happens during the winter when the sky is grey and covered by clouds every day? How do you survive then?

All things considered, while Breatharianism is an interesting concept, something seems fishy with those who are promoting and practicing this diet.
Medical experts have repeatedly proven that the body simply cannot exist without food beyond a certain period of time. I can’t wrap my mind around the concept that just because Breatharianists believe that they don’t need food, they actually don’t.

I guess we’ll find out the answer when Dr. Werner is caught two years from now in some remote village where no one knows his name downing a double cheeseburger deluxe.