Sunlight-Fast Reportedly Kills Swiss Woman

GENEVA -- Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reports that a woman starved to death after embarking on a spiritual diet that required her to stop eating or drinking and live off sunlight alone.

The Zurich newspaper reported Wednesday that the unnamed Swiss woman in her fifties decided to follow the radical fast in 2010 after viewing an Austrian documentary about an Indian guru who claims to have lived this way for 70 years.

Tages-Anzeiger says there have been similar cases of self-starvation in Germany, Britain and Australia.

The prosecutors' office in the Swiss canton (state) of Aargau confirmed Wednesday that the woman died in January 2011 in the town of Wolfhalden in eastern Switzerland.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Rissi says prosecutors haven't opened a criminal investigation over the woman's death.

Comments

[AgainstAnimalAbuse]

03:18 PM on 04/29/2012

I wouldn't last a day on this diet, especially since I sunburn easily. This search for spirituality that becomes more pronounced in hard times should have as a prerequisite common sense!

[mem60]

06:38 AM on 04/27/2012

Too much of a good thing: O. D. by vitamin D.
IMO, she needed intervention to have her committed before she got so bad off.

[mem60]

06:27 AM on 04/27/2012

Too much of a good thing: O. D. by vitamin D.
Too bad family or others didn't or couldn't step in and have her committed for her well-being.

[rbenjamin]

09:25 AM on 04/26/2012

Worst case of chloroplast envy I've ever heard of.

[jonny dipstick]

09:22 AM on 04/26/2012

If we could just get the photosynthesis tech to work on our bodies, then she wouldn't have died! Plus, the idea of getting with a green chick is pretty awesome to me.

[danny saunders]

09:15 AM on 04/26/2012

"prosecutors haven't opened a criminal investigation over the woman's death."

Would they arrest the Sun for suspicion of murder?

[realitytrumpsbull]

09:03 AM on 04/26/2012

So then, you go and starve yourself on some advice you got out of some book, or off the internet. And, you die as a result. What did you really accomplish, there?

[kegworker13]

08:19 AM on 04/26/2012

She didn't read the proviso: If a cloudy day, eat a biscuit.

[Susan Shaffer]

07:22 PM on 04/25/2012

I'm amazed at the willpower of the woman. If I miss breakfast I can't make it to lunch without thinking about food.

[Reality always bites]

04:30 PM on 04/27/2012

I never miss breakfast- Sunshine is a bonus!

[dirtytrickz]

04:56 PM on 04/25/2012

If only the photosynthesis had kicked in..

[Mike vdB]

03:53 PM on 04/25/2012

People put so much blind faith into their spiritual journey that they forget, as humans, we are designed to question everything around us. Questioning does not mean you are less faithful to your cause or belief. It is ok to grow and learn, but you still need to be responsible.

[jonny dipstick]

09:22 AM on 04/26/2012

True and it also means we discover that people don't want us to question so they can control us.

[LiberalLee]

11:59 AM on 04/25/2012

These fake gurus and their nonsense claims really need to be investigated better before more people lose their lives in pointless quests for 'spritual growth'.
What do these people think they are, plants? Humans don't photosynthesize their nutrition and anyone gullible enough to think they can, needs their head examined to see if there's any brain at all inside it.

[jonny dipstick]

09:22 AM on 04/26/2012

I can.

[LiberalLee]

10:27 AM on 04/26/2012

Sure you can.
But then you ARE a plant. Or at least show all the native intelligence of a juniper bush.

[piul05]

10:28 AM on 04/25/2012

"Tages-Anzeiger says there have been similar cases of self-starvation in Germany, Britain and Australia."

Interesting that they all come from wealthy countries; there must be something about living a life largely devoid of risks and hardship that make some people completely lose their common sense/survival instincts.

One doesn't see people from Guinea-Bissau, Timor, Sierra Leone, etc coming up with such crackpot ideas.

[Reality always bites]

04:33 PM on 04/27/2012

No one doesn't see that- But we do read about them being killed in civil war, starving to death and suffering extreme hardship.
They have no need for crackpot ideas do they?

[piul05]

07:11 PM on 04/27/2012

Take up some reading comprehension classes, will you?

[PiperSniper]

08:44 AM on 04/25/2012

Some great investigative journalism.

[cabinetmaniac]

09:32 PM on 04/25/2012

It only took a year and a half to report the story.

☮

[beenzrgud]

08:24 AM on 04/25/2012

Who would have guessed, it takes more than willpower to turn oneself into a desert loving plant.