A Vietnamese woman claims to have given up solid food over four decades ago and survived on water spiked with a bit of salt, sugar and lemon juice ever since.
63-year-old Ms. Ngon is famous in her native Tan Trach commune, Vietnam’s Long An province, for her very unique diet. For the last 41 years, she has allegedly been living on water with a few grams of salt and sugar, as well as a bit of lemon juice, completely shunning all other nutrients. She not only appears to be in tip-top shape for her age, but she is in great health, is always full of energy and can execute Yoga poses that people decades younger than her wouldn’t even dream of attempting. She considers water vital to her health in the same way that watering is to a tree…
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Ms. Ngon used to eat rice and other solid foods until the age of 21, when she started dealing with serious health problems. Her vision started deteriorating, her stomach ached constantly and she would vomit on a daily basis. Blood tests revealed that she suffered from a blood disease. After attempting the prescribed treatment without seeing any significant improvement to her health, she decided to quit her medication, thinking she didn’t have long to live.
That’s when a doctor allegedly came to her and advised her to start drinking water mixed with a bit of salt and sugar and quit eating solid foods. He told her he could squeeze some fruit juice in the water if she wanted, but nothing else. The mystery man told her that following this diet would help save her vision and maybe even cure her blood disease, but he insisted that she never reveal his name to anyone, because the method was completely unscientific and people would criticize him for it.
The woman kept her promise even after her benefactor passed away. No one, not even her family knows his name, and no one ever will. The one thing she can say is that his advice worked, and she is living proof of that. However, she doesn’t recommend the water-based diet to anyone, because she acknowledges that it can be dangerous. She considers her case a miracle, and credits her religious beliefs for the diet’s success.
Ms. Ngog recalled that when she started living exclusively on water, 41 years ago, her family was completely against it, accusing her of wanting to starve herself to death. At one point, they threatened to go on a hunger strike with her, so they could die together, but she managed to convince them that she wasn’t trying to end her life, but that the exact opposite was true. When her health started improving, they stopped asking her to eat regular food.
The 63-year-old admitted that living on water alone can get a little boring from time to time, even when adding a few drops of fruit juice to give it a bit of flavor. She sometimes takes a sugar cube in her mouth and drinks water to disolve it, just as a way of spicing things up.
After her health improved as a result of switching to a water diet, Ms. Ngog started her journey of trying to become a physician. She is currently a member of the Long An Acupuncture Association, is a Yoga teacher and is an advocate for yoga and exercise. She considers her dedication to promoting an active and healthy life a “payback” to the doctor who once saver her life.
In the past, we’ve covered several people with such unusual diets – a man who claimed to live exclusively on tree leaves and grass, a breatharian who only survived on “energy”, and a man who lives on beer alone for Lent.
