university of minnesota starvation experiment

The Starvation Experiment

How Starvation Affects the Body and Mind

To inform treatment, mental health providers often like to discuss research findings with their patients. It offers an opportunity for individuals to understand a providers reasoning for using a particular modality while eliciting change. For the treatment of eating disorders in particular, Garner (1997) recommends providing information from research or psychoeducation to individuals with eating disorders. It is suggested to be a core component of eating disorder treatment because it can act as a source of motivation and reduce defensiveness in patients (Garner, Rockert, Olmsted, Johnson, & Coscina, 1985). One of the most prominent studies used as a source of psychoeducation in eating disorder treatment is the Minnesota Starvation Study by Keys et al. (1950). Not only did it provide a wealth of knowledge about the psychological and physiological effects of starvation, a key component in anorexia nervosa, but it also offered insight into the rehabilitation/refeeding process. Discussing these findings helps our patients and providers understand the process of restrictive eating and how to implement adaptive refeeding. 

Origin 

During this time in history, starvation and other forced atrocities were occurring throughout Europe in World War II. It was clear there would be a critical need for a large-scale relief feeding (Keys et. al, 1950). As a consultant to the War Department and a professor of physiology at the University of Minnesota, Ancel Keys sought to explore how individuals would be affected physiologically and psychologically by a limited diet. Additionally and most importantly, he wanted to identify how he could best help these individuals in the refeeding process to provide postwar rehabilitation.  

What is the Minnesota Starvation Study? 

In November 1944, physiologist, Ancel Keys, and psychologist, Josef Brozek, conducted a study at the University of Minnesota to identify the best type of rehabilitation diet for individuals who had experienced starvation. In order to test types of refeeding, the researchers first had to conduct a study on semi-starvation. This additional exploration provided information about the effects of semi-starvation on the mind and body and offered significant insight into symptoms related to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.  

Recruitment Process 

To conduct this research, Keys et al. (1950) recruited thirty-six young, healthy men to participate in this almost year-long study. This was a difficult task due to many young men serving in the military at the time. Fortunately, there was a group of young men assigned to the Civilian Public Service in the United States and Keys received approval from the War Department to recruit from this sample. In order to participant in the study, individuals had to meet the following criteria: Must be in good physical and mental health; must be able to get along reasonably well with others; and must have a true interest in relief and rehabilitation. In order to have optimal motivation and cooperation in the study, the researchers believed that the participants needed to have a personal sense of responsibility in improving the nutritional status of famine victims. 

Study Activities 

Throughout the entire study, participants worked on tasks in the laboratory and were allowed to take university classes and participate in university activities.  Each participant was required to keep a personal journal of their daily lives within the study. The participants’ basic functions, body weight, size, and strength were recorded regularly. They were given psychomotor and endurance tests as they walked or ran on treadmills in their laboratory as well as intelligence and personality measures from psychologists (Keys et al., 1950). 

Phases 

The experiment was conducted in the following way: The first 12-weeks was a control period, the next 24 weeks involved semi-starvation, and the last 12-weeks involved controlled rehabilitation. An additional 8 weeks of unrestricted rehabilitation was held for twelve of the subjects. For 8 to 12 months following the starvation recovery, the study conducted follow-up examinations.  

During the first three months, the researchers observed and collected data about their participants’ normal eating behaviors. The participants ate food provided by a full-time cook and two assistants under the supervision of a trained dietitian. Each individual’s meals were adjusted to their body size in order to maintain caloric balance. They consumed around 3500 calories of food per day and were determined to have had an appropriate amount of nutrients and vitamins. 

For the following six months, the men’s diets were restricted to half of their normal intake to reflect the conditions of war in Europe. They were served two meals a day and ate approximately 1570 calories a day. As a result, they lost approximately 25% of their weight.  

For the final three months of the study, participants were refed and rehabilitated. They were divided into 4 groups and refed with different caloric amounts starting at a low quantity. A small group of subjects stayed for an additional 8 weeks and were fed an unrestricted diet. During those first two weeks of the unrestricted diet, each participant was allowed to choose their own meals and consequently ate between 7,000-10,000 calories per day.  

Results and Observations 

After reviewing and analyzing the data collected throughout the baseline, starvation period, and refeeding/rehabilitation period, notable changes were observed in physical, psychological, behavioral, and social aspects of the volunteers’ lives. Not only had the participants’ bodies’ gone through physical changes, but their psychological well-being had been impacted. 

Cognitive Differences. First, Keys et al. (1950) noticed a significant difference in the themes of the participants’ cognitions. Compared to the start of the study, the participants were far more preoccupied with food. Food and eating became focal points in conversations, reading, dreams, and even daydreams. For example, when they watched movies, the study’s participants were recorded commenting on the frequency of food and eating mentioned. Some volunteers developed concentration issues due to their preoccupation with food. Additionally, their interest in food expanded into new habits of reading cookbooks and collecting recipes (Garner & Garfinkel, 1985). Three participants even changed their occupations to reflect their extreme interest in eating and food: Three became chefs and one went into the agriculture field (Keys et al., 1950). 

Eating Changes. Second, Keys et al. (1950) observed changes in the participant’s baseline behavior. During mealtimes, participants were recorded becoming possessive over their food. Worried that others may try to eat their meals, they would guard their food defensively with their elbows. At meal times, participants were recorded eating all the food on their plates to the “last crumb” and “licking” their plates clean. Some even became upset when non-participants in the cafeteria “wasted” food.  

Moreover, those that enjoyed gum started chewing to excess. Gum-chewing became a health concern due to participants “rapidly” chewing 2-3 sticks at a time until their mouths became sore. The researchers had to place a cap on gum packages chewed per day to two. Others developed tobacco-smoking habits because it provided some relief from the hunger they experienced during the semi-starvation phase. 

During the rehabilitative phase, more eating behaviors developed. Men started eating “several” meals in one sitting and developed gastrointestinal upset and headaches as a result. They experienced difficulties in reading their own hunger cues. Participants described feeling hungrier and using binge-eating and purging behaviors during the refeeding period. Even after five-months of refeeding, they continued to use these behaviors and developed body image concerns. 

Behavioral and Personality Changes. Many were observed collecting food-themed items and even rummaging through garbage to find food. The participants developed an extreme distaste for wasting food. Such behaviors have been observed in individuals with anorexia nervosa (Crisp, Hsu, Harding, & Hartshorn, 1980). Similarly, participants used methods to create the illusion that they had more food on their plates than in reality. They started “toying” with their food, cutting it into small pieces, and making their meal consumption last for hours, which previously would have lasted minutes. There was also a remarkable increase in the use of spices and salt to add flavor to meals. Moreover, participants who had been mostly extraverted in their social life, became isolated and described themselves as feeling socially inadequate. Keys et al. (1950) also reported a decrease in the sex drive and interest of their volunteers. 

Emotional Changes. During the semi-starvation and the rehabilitative phases, participants were recorded developing new anxiety and depressive symptoms not present at the beginning of the study. Using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), Keys et al. (1950) recorded significant increases on the Hysteria, Hypochondriasis, and Depression scales indicating increased anxiety related to somatic concerns and depressive symptoms. Especially during the semi-starvation period, some participants endorsed becoming more sensitive and argumentative with others. Over the first 6 weeks of the rehabilitation period, many men reported feeling even more depressed than the semi-starvation phase; especially those individuals in the rehabilitation group that were fed less calories in the beginning of the phase to test refeeding strategies. Keys et al. (1950) remarked that the only times these participants showed positive emotional reactions were in response to discussing their weight, food, or hunger. 

Physical Observations. Lastly, the participants’ physical changes throughout the experiment were significant. Not only had the participants’ weight changed during the different stages of the study, they started to experience new issues with gastrointestinal discomfort, dizziness, headaches, decreased need for sleep, edema, hair loss, and cold intolerance. Even their basal metabolic rate (BMR), or amount of energy in calories the body requires at rest, changed depending on the stage of the study. By the end of the semi-starvation period, the volunteers’ BMRs had decreased by 40% from their baselines. Keys et al. (1950) suggested that this was due to the low caloric intake which reduced the body’s need for energy. Additionally, in the semi-starvation period, the volunteers’ weight dropped by 25% and their muscle mass decreased by 40%.  

What does this all mean? 

Keys et al. (1950) originally explored optimal methods for the refeeding of individuals following starvation. In order to do so, the researchers had to conduct a study in which healthy participants were voluntarily semi-starved. As a result, Keys et al. (1950) discovered a wealth of knowledge pertaining to the detrimental effects of starvation and restriction to physical and psychological functioning. The men in this study were healthy physically and psychologically at the beginning of the experiment. Following semi-starvation, the participants developed symptoms similar to those of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder.  

Understanding the findings from this study is important for several reasons. First, it may provide insights into why starvation may be reinforcing for some individuals. The description of the experience of extreme caloric restriction sounds aversive. Yet, it is possible that the food preoccupation that accompanies extreme caloric depletion is reinforcing in the sense that the individual struggling thinks less about other things that may be stressful – but seemingly less in the individuals’ “control.” In this way, the starvation of anorexia nervosa is functioning as a distraction or avoidance behavior. At the same time, this preoccupation may give individuals with anorexia nervosa the mistaken impression that there is not much that constitutes who they are other than restricting food – thereby making the prospect of recovery quite scary. Thus, understanding that this is an artifact of starvation can be very hope producing. Second, it may help parents have a greater understanding of some of the perplexing and sometimes frustrating behaviors that arise during the course of meal management (e.g., slow eating, shredding food). By appreciating that these are adaptations of starvation rather than overt acts of defiance, parents may be in a better position to understand the behaviors of their children.  

In summary, this study suggests that the act of restriction and extreme dieting impacts an individual’s physical, social, behavioral, and psychological well-being. To this day, the Minnesota Starvation Study is considered one of the most critical pieces of psychoeducation to share in the treatment of eating disorders.

By Chantal Gil, PsyD

References  

Crisp, A. H., Hsu, L. K. G., Harding, B., & Hartshorn, J. (1980). Clinical features of anorexia nervosa: A study of a consecutive series of 102 female patients. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 24(3), 179-191. 

Garner, D. M. (1997). Psychoeducational principles in treatment. In D. M. Garner & P. E. Garfinkel (Eds.), Handbook of treatment for eating disorders (pp. 147-177). New York, NY, US: The Guilford Press. 

Garner, D. M., & Garfinkel, P. E. (1985). Handbook of psychotherapy for anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Guilford Press. 

Kalm, L. M., & Semba, R. D. (2005). They starved so that others be better fed: remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota experiment. The Journal of nutrition, 135(6), 1347-1352. 

Keys, A., Brozek, J., Henshel, A., Mickelson, O., & Taylor, H.L. (1950). The biology of human starvation, (Vols. 1–2). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Tucker, T. (2007). The great starvation experiment: Ancel Keys and the men who starved for science.Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. 

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What We Can Learn From the Minnesota Starvation Experiment

This experiment makes it clear how substantial malnourishment effects can be..

Posted August 10, 2021 | Reviewed by Vanessa Lancaster

• Reduced food intake has a strong impact on cognition, emotion, and behavior. 
• The recovery period from starvation puts people at greater risk for mental health problems than they were when they were starving. 
• It is vital to provide additional support in the early recovery period from starvation to avoid relapse.

I find myself explaining the Minnesota Starvation Experiment repeatedly to clients because it makes it so clear how strong the effects of malnourishment can be.

In the 60s, a group of scientists studied how starvation would affect the American population in case there was ever a food supply issue or food shortage problem. They recruited healthy male volunteers. Pay attention to this part: they screened out anybody who had previous mental health issues or problems with food.

They put the subjects on a restricted diet of 1570 calories per day. I usually don’t like to use numbers in my blogs because they can be triggering for some people, but in this case, it’s essential to acknowledge that we are not talking about a few grains of rice here; we’re talking about a little less than half of the “recommended” intake for most men.

Because the subjects went absolutely crazy, they reported thinking about food all the time, not being able to concentrate on anything else. They were obsessively preoccupied with their next meal and lost interest in everything else. They became depressed , anxious , listless, and hypochondriacal. They withdrew socially and had no sexual interest. One subject–and remember these were healthy people with no history of mental health issues–tried to chop off his own fingers with an axe. He reported being “unsure” of whether or not he did it on purpose.

So, reduced food intake has an overwhelmingly strong impact on cognition , emotion , and behavior. Maybe you could have told me that. But there’s another important takeaway from the starvation study, too–by far, the worst mental health the volunteers exhibited was when they were in recovery from the starvation.

The study proceeded in phases. During the first phase, the control period, the men were allowed to eat fairly normally. The second phase, the semi-starvation period, lasted for six months. The subjects were then rehabilitated slowly in two phases, first “restricted rehabilitation” in which the subjects were slowly given increasing amounts of food in a system fairly analogous to a meal plan, and then “restricted rehabilitation” in which they were able to eat however they pleased but their intake was monitored.

The worst mental health issues by far were reported during the “Restricted Rehabilitation” phase. It was during this period that one of the subjects got all choppy-choppy with his digits. It’s likely that the body avoided having strong feelings as a way to conserve energy during the starvation period and that when it has enough intake, they all come rushing back.

What this means is, when someone is beginning recovery from anorexia, they are at even more risk for mental health problems than they were when they were starving. This finding is counterintuitive and significant; many insurance companies pull financial support for treatment. The second eating is under control. Based upon the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, though, we can see that that is the moment when clients are most likely to suffer. Even from a dollars and cents perspective (which, I assure you, is the one that insurance companies take), it is vital to provide additional support in the early recovery period to avoid relapse (and, from the insurance company’s perspective, the costs associated with it).

Hopefully, it also provides you with an extra dose of compassion if you have a loved one who has begun eating normally but has not yet begun acting that way. From a mental health perspective, the effects of starvation are still quite profound–often even worsened - after a person has begun eating “normally.” Understanding this can hopefully help you to meet your loved one with more understanding and compassion,

Dana Harron, Psy.D. is a psychologist in Washington, DC, who works with people who have eating disorders, trauma or anxiety, and their loved ones.

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Time Capsule

The psychology of hunger

Amid the privations of World War II, 36 men voluntarily starved themselves so that researchers and relief workers could learn about how to help people recover from starvation.

By Dr. David Baker and Natacha Keramidas

October 2013, Vol 44, No. 9

Print version: page 66

In November 1944, 36 young men took up residence in the corridors and rooms of the University of Minnesota football stadium. They were not members of the football team. Rather, they were volunteers preparing for a nearly yearlong experiment on the psychological and physiological effects of starvation. Known as the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, the study was a project of the newly established Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene at the University of Minnesota, an interdisciplinary research institution with an emphasis on nutrition and human biology.

During the semi-starvation phase the changes were dramatic. Beyond the gaunt appearance of the men, there were significant decreases in their strength and stamina, body temperature, heart rate and sex drive. The psychological effects were significant as well. Hunger made the men obsessed with food. They would dream and fantasize about food, read and talk about food and savor the two meals a day they were given. They reported fatigue, irritability, depression and apathy. Interestingly, the men also reported decreases in mental ability, although mental testing of the men did not support this belief.

For some men, the study proved too difficult. Data from three subjects were excluded as a result of their breaking the diet and a fourth was excluded for not meeting expected weight loss goals.

The men and the study became subjects of national interest, even appearing in Life magazine in 1945. But in some ways, world events overtook the study. The war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945, barely halfway through the starvation phase of the experiment. Keys and the men worried that the data they had sacrificed for would not get to relief workers and the starving people they wished to serve in time to help them. Relief efforts were underway and there was no clear guide for rehabilitating those who were starving.

In response, members of Keys staff prepared a 70-page booklet, Men and Hunger: A Psychological Manual for Relief Workers . The book provided practical advice based on lessons learned in the lab.

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment ended in October 1945. Its results painted a vivid picture of the physical and psychological decline caused by starvation and offered guidelines on rehabilitation. In the restricted rehabilitation, calories were increased in increments. The experiment also looked at unrestricted rehabilitation and — even though participants were warned against it — some engaged in extreme overeating. Of the various diets and supplements that were studied during the rehabilitation phase of the experiment, the most reliable weight-gain strategy was high caloric intake. Simply put, starving people needed calories. Food and lots of it was the key to rehabilitation. It was as true for those released from the laboratory in Minnesota as it was for those freed from the privations of war in Europe.

In 1950, Keys, Brozek and other members of the team published their data in the two-volume set "The Biology of Human Starvation," which is still a landmark work on human starvation. The men who served as subjects went their separate ways, some into relief work, the ministry, education and other service-oriented occupations. Brozek, who had developed an interest in the history of psychology, would go on to Lehigh University and became a recognized psychology historian. Keys, who is well-known for his work on the Mediterranean diet, is also remembered for popularizing the body mass index. His contributions and visibility were significant enough to earn him a place on the cover of Time magazine in 1961.

The story of the Minnesota Starvation Experiment is many stories rolled into one. It reminds us of the privilege we have; most of us can avoid the unpleasant sensation of hunger by simply reaching for something to eat. Hunger is debilitating and tragic, all the more so when it is created by human affairs. The Minnesota Starvation Experiment also tells the story of service and sacrifice among those who served in the Civilian Public Service and raised questions about the ethics of human experimentation. Mostly, it reminds us that in psychology studies of mind and body, science and practice can converge to deal with real problems in the real world.

David Baker, PhD, is the Margaret Clark Morgan executive director of the Center for the History of Psychology and professor of psychology at the University of Akron. Natacha Keramidas is a graduate assistant at the Center for the History of Psychology and a PhD student in the collaborative program in counseling psychology. Katharine S. Milar, PhD, is historical editor for "Time Capsule."

Further Reading

• Kalm, L.M., & Semba, R.D. (2005). They starved so that others be better fed: Remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota Experiment. Journal of Nutrition, 135 , 1347–1352.
• Keys, A., Brozek, J., Henshel, A., Mickelson, O., & Taylor, H.L. (1950). The biology of human starvation , (Vols. 1–2). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
• Tucker, T. (2007). The great starvation experiment: Ancel Keys and the men who starved for science. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

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70 years ago, the Minnesota Starvation…

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70 years ago, the Minnesota Starvation Experiment changed lives

Dorothy 'Dottie' Villwock, White Bear Lake, holds a photo Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014, of her husband, Robert Villwock at his lowest weight -- 105 pounds. He volunteered in the Minnesota Experiment in Human Starvation at the University of Minnesota in 1944. Scientists conducted the research during WW II to learn how people are affected by and how they recover from dietary deficiency. Life magazine did a story about the experiment in 1945. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Phyllis Scholberg, New Brighton, shows the semi-starvation diet menu Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014. Her husband, Henry Scholberg volunteered in the Minnesota Experiment in Human Starvation at the University of Minnesota in 1944. Scientists conducted the research during WW II to learn how people are affected by and how they recover from dietary deficiency. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Phyllis Scholberg, New Brighton, shows a photo Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014, of her husband, Henry Scholberg, at 116 pounds, and in photo on right, with fellow participant, Dan Peacock, sittng on the left, who is still alive in Hawaii. They volunteered in the Minnesota Experiment in Human Starvation at the University of Minnesota during World War II. Scientists conducted the year-long study to learn how people are affected by and how they recover from dietary deficiency. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Dorothy 'Dottie' Villwock, White Bear Lake, holds a photo Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014, of her husband at his lowest weight of 105 pounds during the starvation experiment. Her husband, Robert Villwock volunteered in the Minnesota Experiment in Human Starvation at the University of Minnesota in 1944. Scientists conducted the research during WW II to learn how people are affected by and how they recover from dietary deficiency. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Dorothy 'Dottie' Villwock, White Bear Lake, holds a photo Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014, of her husband, Robert Villwock at his lowest weight -- 105 pounds. He volunteered in the Minnesota Experiment in Human Starvation at the University of Minnesota in 1944. Scientists conducted the research during WW II to learn how people are affected by and how they recover from dietary deficiency. Life magazine did a story about the experiment in 1945. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

It’s mid-November, which means that many of us soon will be stuffing ourselves silly from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.

But 70 years ago at this time, three dozen young men assembled in a laboratory under the football stadium at the University of Minnesota campus to do something quite different.

They were going to starve themselves for science and humanity.

The men had volunteered for what now is known as the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, a groundbreaking study that was conducted by U of M physiologist Ancel Keys.

Keys already had gained fame for developing the K ration, the portable food packet carried by paratroopers and other GIs in combat during World War II.

After the war, Keys would appear on the cover of Time magazine for establishing a link between saturated fat and heart disease and promoting the Mediterranean diet as a solution.

RECRUITING CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

But while WWII was still raging and the Allies slowly were grinding their way toward victory, Keys worked on a different problem: how to best feed starving people in newly liberated occupied and war-torn countries.

Keys’ answer was an exhaustive, year-long experiment that would subject humans to “semi-starvation” in laboratory conditions. Then he would document how the test subjects responded to recovery diets.

The test subjects were recruited from the ranks of conscientious objectors who opposed being drafted into the military. They were pacifists who refused to kill for their country but who were willing to sacrifice themselves to help others.

For six months, the men went hungry. They became emaciated to the point that they resembled concentration camp survivors. Some went a little nuts.

The test subjects became obsessed with food. They collected cookbooks, recipes and kitchen gadgets and had nightmares about cannibalism. They lost interest in sex and became depressed, antisocial, lethargic and irritable. When they went to the movies, they were most interested in the scenes when the actors were eating.

“I think for the first time, I read Proust because he had something to say about the joys of partaking in food,” said Daniel Peacock, 95, one of perhaps two or three of the original 36 starvation experiment subjects still alive.

“They kind of looked at food with an almost pornographic preoccupation,” said Todd Tucker, who wrote a book about the study, “The Great Starvation Experiment.”

The test subjects developed bizarre eating rituals and were tempted to eat garbage. They berated people who wasted food. Until the experimenters restricted it, one man chewed up to 40 packages of gum a day.

Two briefly were checked into psychiatric wards. One man cut off three of his fingers with an ax.

IT COULD NOT BE DONE TODAY

Today, the experiment can be regarded as a case study of how much a person is willing to endure to stand up for one’s beliefs. And how much a researcher can ask someone to endure even if the result potentially could help millions.

“Here you are subjecting people to dramatic deprivation that really did cause them significant hardship,” said Sarah Tracy, a University of Oklahoma science history professor who is writing a biography of Keys.

The end result was a landmark examination of human starvation. The experiment is still consulted and cited by scientists, especially researchers studying eating disorders and the psychological impact of extreme hunger. It’s valued for its scientific rigor and because there is nothing else like it.

“Clearly, the experiment could not be done today,” said Henry Blackburn, an emeritus professor at the U who worked with Keys after the starvation experiment.

Blackburn, who took over as director of Keys’ Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene after Keys retired, said the starvation experiment met the ethical standards of the day.

But the experiment wouldn’t pass the current rules regarding fully informed consent and the welfare of test subjects, according to Blackburn.

“They were harmed temporarily,” he said.

In interviews in the years after the experiment, test subjects have said they were glad to have been chosen for the test and proud that they had participated.

During WWII, conscientious objectors who refused to be drafted into the military were put in something called the Civilian Public Service and assigned to work camps to do “work of national importance.” The work ranged from fighting forest fires to being attendants in mental institutions.

Conscientious objectors also were given the opportunity to be “guinea pigs” in medical experiments studying conditions such as malaria, typhus and pneumonia.

Keys sought volunteers for the starvation experiment with a pamphlet sent to the work camps around the country. The pamphlet had a picture of small children looking into empty bowls with a headline, “Will you starve that they be better fed?”

‘I WANTED TO RISK MY LIFE’

Peacock was one of more than 400 young men who applied to be starved.

“It appeared to me as something more important to do than anything else I had been doing before the war,” said Peacock, a Quaker originally from Indiana. He now lives in Honolulu.

Conscientious objector Robert Villwock did road work in a public service camp in Virginia before he volunteered for the Minnesota experiment.

Villwock, of White Bear Lake, died in 2010. His widow, Dorothy Villwock, said that when her husband decided to become a conscientious objector during WWII, “His father was embarrassed and went around to the neighbors and apologized.”

“They were frustrated, the men in these camps, because they felt they weren’t doing really important work,” Dorothy Villwock said.

Author Tucker said the volunteers were idealistic and typically motivated by religious beliefs. They also were young men who wanted to prove their toughness at a time when conscientious objectors, or “conchies” as they were called in newspaper headlines, were suspected of being slackers or cowards.

“These guys all fought to be in the experiment,” Tucker said. “They considered themselves lucky to be in the experiment.”

“I wanted to do something that had a little more punch to it. I wanted to risk my life in some way and be of service,” said starvation volunteer Marshall Sutton, 96, a Quaker now living in Maryland. “I wanted to do something that was more adventurous.”

The experiment began Nov. 19, 1944. The 36 volunteers, with an average age of 25, were housed and tested in windowless rooms in Keys’ laboratory under the bleachers at Memorial Stadium.

The recruiting pamphlet said the volunteers would have access to an array of cultural activities in the Twin Cities and could take classes at a “School of Foreign Relief,” so they could “study as you starve.”

The pamphlet also noted the presence of a women’s dorm on campus “for those among us who are so extraordinarily versatile as to combine the qualities of a ‘guinea pig’ by day and a ‘wolf’ by night!”

CALORIES CUT IN HALF

Keys later would write that when the experiment began, there was a briefing “stressing the point that they were in for a hard time. All of them said they understood.”

“I was told, boy, this is going to be difficult,” Peacock remembered. “The general purpose of the experiment was pretty clearly understood.”

First, there was a three-month control period when the men received a normal diet of about 3,200 calories a day while researchers tested their strength, endurance, dexterity, hearing, sight, intelligence, personalities and even the potency of their semen.

“We were given some test every day of some kind,” Sutton said.

The tests continued when the six-month semi-starvation period began. But now, the calories were cut almost in half.

Instead of bacon, eggs, roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy and chocolate sundaes, the men were fed twice a day from a monotonous menu believed to be similar to what many Europeans were trying to live on: bread, cabbage, rutabagas, turnips and macaroni.

Initially, the researchers “trusted us a little bit too much in the experiment,” Sutton said.

He said some of the test subjects were given jobs cleaning the dining room where the football players ate. The guinea pigs asked for different work because it was too tempting to eat the scraps left behind.

In addition to part-time work, the men were required to walk 22 miles a week.

Cheating incidents led the researchers to institute a “buddy system” requiring that the test subjects never leave the laboratory alone so they could help each other resist breaking the diet.

“I was tempted, of course,” Sutton said. “I did everything I could to keep my mind in order. I took upon it as a religious exercise.”

‘IT CHANGED OUR PERSONALITIES’

The men eventually would would lose about 25 percent of their weight, dropping from an average of about 153 pounds to about 116 pounds.

Their hair fell out. Their skin roughened. Their hearts shrank in size, and their pulse rates dropped. They constantly felt cold. They found it uncomfortable to sit on hard surfaces. Some men collapsed during treadmill endurance tests.

Oddly, their hearing improved, an apparent confirmation of an old belief that hunger sharpens the senses.

But they felt like tired old men, irritated when they saw researchers climb stairs two steps at a time. They became withdrawn, humorless and possessive about their food.

“You not only lose vitality, you lose the camaraderie we had as a group,” Peacock said.

“It changed our personalities,” Sutton said. “We were always apologizing to each other for something we didn’t mean to do.”

They often finished their meals by licking their plates. They began to view normal-weight people as obese.

“I’m so hungry I could eat anything, but I’d start on the fat staff first,” one test subject wrote.

“We had periods of elation. Periods of deep depression. And our difficult traits came to the surface,” Sutton said.

He remembers that he lost interest in sex. When his girlfriend came to visit him, he took her out to dinner at a nice restaurant in Minneapolis just so he could watch her enjoy it. But when the food came, the girlfriend refused to eat.

“At the time, I felt a little upset with her. I paid good money for that meal,” Sutton said.

Even after the six-month semi-starvation period was over, the men couldn’t eat whatever they wanted. They continued to live in the laboratory for a three-month rehabilitation period while the researchers divided them into groups to see how different recovery diets worked.

“It was hard. For a year, they couldn’t take a mouthful of food that hadn’t been measured and weighed,” Dorothy Villwock said.

The experiment showed that adding vitamins or protein wasn’t crucial to recovery. Starving men simply needed to get more calories.

The day that all restrictions were lifted in late October 1945, “most of us had something planned out. Dan and I had our eye on a smorgasbord,” Peacock said of another test subject.

But Peacock said the two men bought food to go from the Minneapolis restaurant. They wanted to eat it in the lab “in case we overdid it, someone would be there to take care of us.”

Sutton traveled back home to the East Coast after the experiment and remembers having a couple of milkshakes every time the bus stopped.

The complete results of the study were documented in 1950 in a two-volume, 1,385-page work titled “The Biology of Human Starvation.”

But earlier summaries of the findings from the Minnesota experiment were published in an effort to help post-war relief efforts.

“Men and Hunger: a Psychological Manual for Relief Workers,” for example, advised that when dealing with starving people, “Never forget that anything related to food should be handled with respect and reverence.”

‘MY PROTRUDING RIBS WERE MY BATTLE SCARS’

Keys kept in touch with his former guinea pigs, who would become ministers and academics and relief workers after the experiment.

“He was impressed with them and their careers and their willingness to endure this,” said Keys’ daughter, Carrie D’Andrea.

After the war, Sutton did relief work for the American Friends Service Committee, distributing food to refugees in the Gaza strip.

“It made me sensitive to people who didn’t have enough food,” Sutton said of his year as a guinea pig.

Test subject Henry Scholberg made two trips to Poland for the United Nations, transporting livestock as a “sea-going cowboy.” He later became a professor and director of the Ames Library of South Asia at the University of Minnesota.

Another volunteer, Max Kampelman, finished his law degree at the U, worked as an aide for Hubert Humphrey and became a diplomat and arms-control negotiator for the Carter and Reagan administrations.

The test subjects returned Keys’ admiration and respect. They invited him and the other researchers to their reunions.

“I had a feeling this was an impressive group of men. Not that they were rich and famous,” said Dorothy Villwock, who attended the 50th reunion. “But this was an impressive group as far as their character.”

D’Andrea also was at that reunion. She said none of the test subjects were overweight, but some of the men admitted they always carried a candy bar with them.

They looked back at what they had endured with gratitude and a sense of accomplishment.

“I am proud of what I did. My protruding ribs were my battle scars,” Scholberg is quoted as saying in the study publication. “It was something great, something incomprehensible.”

Keys’ starvation laboratory, dubbed “the cage,” was torn down with the rest of Memorial Stadium in 1992. Keys died 10 years ago this week. He lived to 100.

Peacock said he would volunteer to starve again “provided that I would be that age again. I’m not about to do it at 95.”

Sutton said he’s always loved food. But now he’s almost blind. He depends on a walker and hearing aids. And in the past year, he said, he hasn’t eaten as much as he used to.

“My hunger is receding right now,” he said.

Richard Chin can be reached at 651-228-5560. Follow him at twitter.com/RRChin .

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The Minnesota Starvation Experiment – How it happened and what it taught us

TW: eating disorders, calories, starvation

There are a few studies that I believe everyone who is interested in psychology should know about. These are pieces of work that, although sometimes questionable in their ethics, have made the discipline of psychology what it is today. They are constantly cited and spoken about, and have guided the creation of various theories in virtually all areas of the discipline. One such study is commonly known as the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. It was conducted in 1944 by Ancel Keys and his colleagues who, frightened by the notion that World War II (which was in full force at this time) was leaving millions of innocent civilians without food, wanted to gather empirical knowledge on the physical and psychological effects of starvation. Their goal was to eventually help with the development of rehabilitation strategies to be implemented after the war (Baker & Keramidas, 2013).

So, how did they do this? The subjects were thirty six young men chosen from a group of 400 conscientious war objectors (meaning men that had refused to serve in the war) who willingly volunteered to be a part of this study. Each participant underwent strenuous testing to ensure that they were perfectly healthy physically and mentally before being selected to be a part of the study (Baker & Keramidas, 2013). They lived at the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene at the University of Minnesota for almost a year, and were encouraged to maintain their regular lives as much as possible during the experiment. The study was divided into three phases: a control period of three months where the men were fed a normal amount of food (circa 3200 calories daily) and their baseline behaviour was observed, a six month semistarvation phase where they ate circa 1500 calories a day and had a goal of decreasing their weight by 25%, and finally a three month rehabilitation phase (Kalm & Semba, 2005). During the first three weeks of this last phase, participant’s calorie intake was increased in a controlled way, after which they were free to choose how much and what to eat. Their diet during the experiment consisted of food that was commonly found in Europe during the war, namely bread and potatoes (Baker & Keramidas, 2013). Participants were also required to walk 22 miles (35.4km) per week during the semistarvation phase, and their caloric intake was altered based on their weight loss rate to ensure that they all reached the goal of 25% decrease at the end of the six months (Kalm & Semba, 2005).

The results gathered were shocking. During semistarvation, the men showed not only physical signs of food deprivation, namely decreased energy, heart rate, body temperature, and strength (Baker & Keramidas, 2013), but their personalities also changed drastically. These men, who were previously outgoing and driven, quickly became sluggish and unmotivated, constantly irritated by each other’s mere existence (Miller, 2016). Most notably, the participants developed a fascination with food and suddenly were not interested in any other topic. They began collecting recipes and cookbooks and started strange rituals while eating such as cutting up their food into very small pieces and taking hours to eat their meals (Miller, 2016). Participant Harold Blickenstaff stated that “food became the one central and only thing really in one’s life. […] I mean, if you went to a movie, you weren’t particularly interested in the love scenes, but you noticed every time they ate and what they ate” (Kalm & Semba, 2005; 1349). Some subjects also became captivated by the mere sight of others eating, as stated by Marshall Sutton, one of the thirty-six participants, who took his girlfriend to a fancy restaurant “just to enjoy seeing her eat” (Ball, 2014). Some participants went as far as to steal food-related items (i.e. coffee cups) to satisfy their intense cravings (Miller, 2016). 

Together with their calorie intake, the mental health of the participants also rapidly declined. The experimenters reported significant increases in the hysteria, hypochondriasis, and depression scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) during the semistarvation phase (Gil, n.d.). One of the participants developed such extreme symptoms that he chopped off three of his own fingers while cutting wood. In an interview after the experiment he stated that he was unaware whether he did this on purpose or not (Miller, 2016). Four participants were not included in the final report for breaking their diet, two of which ended up being hospitalized due to psychotic symptoms that mostly resolved once they resumed eating normally (Eckert et al., 2018). During the refeeding phase, dizziness and sluggishness were quick to subside, but the more complex psychological symptoms persisted (Kalm & Semba, 2005). Many participants reported severe binge eating, with one of them having to be taken to the hospital to get his stomach pumped (Miller, 2016). They also showed decreased ability to understand hunger signals for many months (Gil, n.d.), and some stated that it took up to two years before they felt normal again. Interestingly, “the scores indicating recovery from depression correlated with calories received” during the rehabilitation phase (Eckert et al., 2018, 8).

The study finished a few months after the war had ended, but the team of experimenters was still able to provide guidance for the rehabilitation of those who starved during the war like they originally intended. Their main advice was that caloric intake would have to be very high (approximately 4000 calories a day) for the first months of refeeding, and that this is more important than the nutritional value of the foods given (Kalm & Semba, 2005). Yet, this is not the only legacy left by this study; its results are still used today in the context of eating disorders. The MMPI profile during semistarvation of the 32 men who completed the study has been described as extremely similar to that of patients with anorexia nervosa. Further, the profile of the men who broke their diet and were removed from the study greatly resembles those of bulimia nervosa patients. Similarly, all but one symptom (namely lethargy) exhibited by the individuals in the semistarvation phase of the experiment have been described in anorexia nervosa patients (Eckert et al., 2018). For this reason inferences based on the results of the study were able to be made about the nature of eating disorders. 

Firstly, the experiment showed that characteristics that were originally believed to result in a predisposition for such disorders (namely depression and impulsivity) are in fact a by-product of starvation (Gil, n.d.). Next, the infatuation with food seen in the participants of the Minnesota Starvation Experiment is also commonly found in those who willingly deprive themselves of food (Witcomb, 2017). It has therefore been suggested that in anorexia patients this obsession “is reinforcing in the sense that the individual struggling thinks less about other things that may be stressful – but seemingly less in the individuals’ ‘control'” (Gil, n.d.). For these reasons, clinicians have found it extremely beneficial to tell their patients about the results of this study as it helps them understand the extent of what they are doing to their bodies and mental states by depriving themselves of food. It also helps decrease helplessness and increase hope for recovery (Dally-Steele, 2018).

As with many other highly influential psychological studies, the nature of the methods employed in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment can be seen as highly unethical. Yet, many claim that it is “ethically justified” (in the words of Eckert et al, 2018), as it provided crucial knowledge that is still used today. Further, participants were fully aware of what they were subjecting themselves to prior to the start of the experiment; the researchers even stated that they could not promise that there would be no long term effects of semi-starvation for six months. Interestingly, all but one of the men who were interviewed 57 years later stated that they would do it all over again (Eckert et al., 2018). I believe this claim sums up the importance of the experiment, as even those who suffered most during its conceptions agree that the results were crucial to the development of psychology (amongst other disciplines), and needed to be gathered in this way.

Baker, D., & Keramidas, N. (2013). The psychology of hunger. Monitor on Psychology , 44 (9), 66. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/10/hunger

Ball, J. (2014, January 20). The Minnesota starvation experiment . BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25782294

Dally-Steele, B. (2018, September 24). Decades-old starvation study bolsters eating disorder research . The Minnesota Daily. https://mndaily.com/234625/news/ftkeys/

Eckert, E. D., Gottesman, I. I., Swigart, S. E., & Casper, R. C. (2018). A 57-year Follow-Up Investigation and Review of the Minnesota Study on Human Starvation and its Relevance to Eating Disorders. Archives of Psychology , 2 (3), 1-19.

Gil, C. (n.d.). The Starvation Experiment . DukeHealth. https://eatingdisorders.dukehealth.org/education/resources/starvation-experiment

Kalm, L. M., & Semba, R. D. (2005). They Starved So That Others Be Better Fed: Remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota Experiment. The Journal of Nutrition , 135 (6), 1347–1352. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/135.6.1347

Miller, K. (2016, July 11). The Starvation Study That Changed The World . Refinery29. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/minnesota-starvation-experiment

Witcomb, G. (2017, May 15). Why people with eating disorders are often obsessed with food . The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/why-people-with-eating-disorders-are-often-obsessed-with-food-77509

Ana Julia Ferreira

I’m Ana, I’m a second year psychology student. I’m originally from Brazil but I’ve also lived in the USA and Austria. A fun fact about me is that I speak 5 languages!

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The Minnesota starvation experiment

In 1944, 26-year-old Marshall Sutton was a young idealist who wanted to change the world for the better. As a conscientious objector and Quaker, he refused to fight in the war but he still craved the chance to help his country.

"I wanted to identify with the suffering in the world at that time," he says. "I wanted to do something for society. I wanted to put myself in a little danger."

That danger came, unexpectedly, in the shape of a small brochure with a picture of children on the front.

"Will you starve that they be better fed?" it asked. It was a call for volunteers to act as human guinea pigs in a medical experiment at the University of Minnesota.

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