Have You Heard of This Starvation Study?
Have you heard of the Minnesota Study of Starvation?
Many haven’t.
What was this study?
An experiment was carried out at the University of Minnesota during World War II where they examined the effects of starvation on “36 young, healthy, psychologically ordinary men who volunteered for the study”, in order to learn how to rehabilitate starving citizens in Europe and Asia.
It included:
3 months of observation - to assess the participants’ normal behaviors and eating patterns.
6 months of restriction - the men’s intake was restricted to about half of what their bodies typically had
3 months of rehabilitation - to study the re-feeding process
Changes the scientists observed in the restriction phase:
Behavior changes
Increase in preoccupation with food
Persistent thoughts of food and eating
Food became a main topic of conversation and daydreaming
Hoarding behaviors, of both food and non-food items
Eating habits
Spent most of their day planning how they would eat their allotment of food
Were caught between conflicting desires to gulp down their food and to savor it
The consumption of coffee and tea dramatically increased, where the men were limited to 9 cups per day.
Gum chewing became excessive
Binge eating and bulimic symptoms
All the volunteers reported increased hunger
If men had unsupervised access to food outside of meal times, they would engage in binges, followed by extreme self-deprecation.
Emotional
Periods of depression
Irritability and frequent outbursts of anger
Anxiety became more evident
Apathy became common
Social and Sexual
The men became progressively more withdrawn and isolated
Humor and the sense of comradeship diminished markedly
Spent more time alone, because it became “too much trouble” or “too tiring” to have contact with other people
Sexual interests were drastically reduced
And what do you think they may have observed during the rehabilitation phase?
You guessed it…
Many of the men lost control of their appetites and “ate more or less continuously”.
Even after 12 weeks of rehabilitation, the men frequently complained that they experienced an increase in hunger immediately following a large meal.
The men also regained all the weight lost during the restriction phase, and then some.
(And, three participants had to be excluded from the results because they could not follow the diet in the restriction phase.)
Why is this important to talk about?
This is a study that is frequently talked about in eating disorder treatment facilities, in order to help people understand how restriction/dieting/obsessing over food can impact our mental health and overall well-being.
In the restriction phase, the men were put into semi-starvation at 1,570 calories per day (divided between breakfast and lunch).
While that is about half of what their bodies needed in a day, it is important for people today to consider what they think is a healthy number of calories to restrict themselves to - because you might be putting yourself in a semi-starvation state.
For example, a toddler needs 1000-1400 calories per day. You need significantly more than a toddler does.
If you are noticing any of these symptom changes listed above, please recognize that these could be red flags, indicating your body needs more nourishment.
Your body deserves nourishment.
You deserve nourishment.
