# 70 years without food/water?!? Really? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-without-food-water-really/539068 "2010-05-11T17:21:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dostoyevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Dostoyevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dostoyevsky)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-without-food-water-really/539068/1 "2010-05-11T17:21:38Z")
[Here](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,591747,00.html) a man claims to have gone 70 years without eating and drinking. My gut feeling is that this is fabricated, but in fairness I’m not a doctor. For those in the know, is there the slightest chance this is true? ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-without-food-water-really/539068/2 "2010-05-11T17:24:13Z")
[Previous thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=561513) ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-without-food-water-really/539068/3 "2010-05-11T17:25:02Z")
> [@Dostoyevsky](#): > > [Here](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,591747,00.html) a man claims to have gone 70 years without eating and drinking. My gut feeling is that this is fabricated, but in fairness I’m not a doctor. For those in the know, is there the slightest chance this is true? No. And you don’t have to be a doctor to figure this out. ---
**Author:** ![Dostoyevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Dostoyevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dostoyevsky)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-without-food-water-really/539068/4 "2010-05-11T17:27:36Z")
Thanks for linking to the previous thread. My apologies to the Moderators and community for the unnecessarily new one. Please close this. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![\_cc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/e19b73/32.png) [@\_cc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_cc)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-without-food-water-really/539068/5 "2010-05-11T17:40:53Z")
Wedging this in before the lock: > [@Carl Sagan](#): > > Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. A good rule of thumb for all such matters. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-without-food-water-really/539068/6 "2010-05-11T18:03:27Z")
And as I’ve said before, how are you supposed to get that extraordinary evidence if you don’t believe it’s even worth looking for? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-without-food-water-really/539068/7 "2010-05-11T18:20:59Z")
I once skipped lunch. [James Randi had a “Breatherian” attempt to collect](http://www.randi.org/jr/111204hot.html). From the site: > [@](#): > > On only one occasion was I actually involved in testing a “Breatharian,” as the never-eating people like to be known. We staked out the Holiday Inn where he was staying during the test, and watched as he went out to the local Burger King at 2 a.m. and stocked up on huge bags of goodies; that ended the test right there — but we decided that this was just such a silly activity, that we’d not do it again. We are, after all, grown adults. We have real lives to live. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-without-food-water-really/539068/8 "2010-05-11T18:30:56Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > And as I’ve said before, how are you supposed to get that extraordinary evidence if you don’t believe it’s even worth looking for? It’s up to the proponents to provide, not the skeptics. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-without-food-water-really/539068/9 "2010-05-11T18:34:42Z")
> [@Dostoyevsky](#): > > Thanks for linking to the previous thread. My apologies to the Moderators and community for the unnecessarily new one. Please close this. Thanks! [moderating] Done. [/moderating]