Scientific Basis
Nutritional science indicates that fasting for extended periods leads to starvation, dehydration, and eventual death. In the absence of calorie intake, the body normally burns its own reserves of glycogen, body fat, and muscle. Breatharians claim that their bodies do not consume these reserves while fasting.
Few breatharians have submitted themselves to medical testing; of those that have, including a hospital's observation of an Indian mystic surviving without food or water for 15 days, none have undergone peer review with results independently reproduced. In a handful of documented cases, individuals attempting breatharian fasting have died, and among the claims investigated by the Indian Rationalist Association, all were found to be fraudulent.
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