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Sometimes you come across a story that seems shadowy enough to beg for a little illumination. Muluwork Ambaw, a 26-year old Ethiopian woman, claims that no food or water have passed her lips since 2010. There is no mystery about how she may have accomplished this remarkable feat. She hasn鈥檛. The story is as absurd as a claim of having a car that requires no fuel for propulsion. The only question is how she has managed to pull the wool over the eyes of people.

The first law of thermodynamics, which will never be repealed, states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another. Everything we do, from moving to thinking, requires energy that is supplied by the 鈥渃ombustion鈥� of food. If there is no food coming in, the body begins to 鈥渂urn鈥� its constituents, mainly fat and proteins. When these run out, there is no energy to supply the heart and lungs, and death ensues.

There is some debate about how long one can survive without food, perhaps as long as 70 days or so, but there is no debate about surviving without water. That鈥檚 about five days. Without water, nutrients cannot be delivered into cells, the kidneys cannot flush out waste, temperature cannot be regulated through sweating, joints can鈥檛 be lubricated, and digestion cannot occur. So how did Andreas Mihavecz, an 18-year-old Austrian who was by some error forgotten in a basement prison cell without any food or water survive for 18 days as reported in The Guinness Book of Records? He licked the cool walls for water that had condensed from the air.

As far as survival without food goes, that record belongs to Angus Barbieri, a Scot who in 1965 underwent a physician-supervised fast for 382 days first in a hospital in Dundee, then at home. For years, Barbieri had unsuccessfully battled his ballooning weight, and finally after failing to get through a turnstile at a stadium, decided that drastic action was needed. The fast, during which he was supplied with vitamins, electrolytes, water, tea and coffee, resulted in his weight dropping from 456 pounds to a normal 180 pounds. This 鈥渞ecord鈥� really should come with an asterisk because Barbieri also consumed an unspecified amount of yeast to supply essential amino acids.

The 鈥渞eal鈥� record for consuming nothing but water would seem to belong to American magician and endurance performer David Blaine, who in 2003 carried out the bizarre stunt of being suspended in a Plexiglas box some 30 feet above the Thames River in London for 44 days, consuming nothing but water. I鈥檓 somewhat ambivalent about Blaine. He is an outstanding magician, one of the best close-up artists I鈥檝e seen. But I am not a fan of stunts that pose a legitimate risk to health. To me, being encased in a block of ice, standing for hours unsupported on top of a pole or being submerged for eight days in a water-filled glass globe supplied only with air through a hose is not 鈥減erformance art鈥� but just ghoulish entertainment for people with a morbid fascination with death. In the latter case, Blaine actually sustained kidney and liver damage.

Not all Londoners were fond of the fasting stunt. Blaine鈥檚 clear plastic box was pelted with eggs, golf balls and paint-filled balloons. He was taunted by people tossing hamburgers in his direction and by drummers who tried to keep him awake at night. Finally, Blaine brought the macabre spectacle to a halt when he sensed the fruity, sweet taste of ketones in his mouth, a sign that his body was consuming its fat reserves. On staggering out of his abode having lost 54 pounds, he was taken to a hospital where doctors began the careful task of refeeding, as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. A day after refeeding began with a nutritionally complete oral formula, Blaine developed hypophosphatemia and required treatment with intravenous phosphate.

During starvation, the body switches from burning carbohydrates supplied by food to burning stored fats and proteins. This doesn鈥檛 require the use of vitamins, minerals and electrolytes in the same way as normal glucose metabolism, with the consequence that when glucose is reintroduced, the requirement for electrolytes, especially phosphate, increases. But not having been supplied by food, there is a lack of phosphate available, and that affects numerous cellular processes leading to muscle weakness and potentially fatal respiratory and heart problems. With proper care, Blaine recovered and has gone on to greater heights. Tethered to 52 helium-filled balloons, he was hoisted to 24,900 feet before successfully parachuting down.

Clearly, survival without food or water is impossible, so what is going on with Ambaw? I encountered her story after being directed to a video produced by Drew Binsky, who having heard accounts of Ambaw鈥檚 miraculous survival without nourishment managed to track her down in a remote Ethiopian village. Binsky is a reputable travel blogger who has visited almost every country in the world and has billions of views on his social media channels. He spent two days with Ambaw and spoke with many villagers who corroborated the story, claiming they had never seen her eat or drink. Binsky marvelled at her passport stamped with visits to Qatar and Dubai where she claimed to have been sent by the prime minister of Ethiopia to be examined by doctors who found her healthy. Curiously, Binsky found that stamps in a passport passed for evidence and declared he found no evidence of fraud.

Well, he should have looked harder. Are there any reports from doctors who observed her for extended periods under controlled conditions? Nope. Filming for two days and speaking to neighbours who are not averse to publicity that can attract travellers to their little village hardly constitutes evidence. Ambaw offers no explanation for her amazing ability to defy the laws of nature, saying that it must be the will of God. Her home, where she lives with her daughter, is richly decorated with religious artifacts. She alleges that during pregnancy she did not eat or drink but was given intravenous glucose. Another miracle that strangely has not been widely reported in the medical literature as one would expect.

Ambaw projects a picture of an unassuming simpleton who has no idea why she is the only person in the world to be able to create energy from nothing. But in truth she is anything but. She is an accomplished fraudster. From afar, I can鈥檛 determine who is involved in the fraud and how it is being perpetrated, but there is no doubt that food is no stranger to Ambaw鈥檚 deceitful lips.