The Minnesota Starvation Experiment, also known as the Minnesota Semi-Starvation Experiment, the Minnesota Starvation-Recovery Experiment and the Starvation Study, was a clinical study performed at the University of Minnesota between November 19, 1944 and December 20, 1945. The investigation was designed to determine the physiological and psychological effects of severe and prolonged dietary restriction and the effectiveness of dietary rehabilitation strategies.
The motivation of the study was twofold: First, to produce a definitive treatise on the subject of human starvation based on a laboratory simulation of severe famine and, second, to utilize the scientific results produced to guide the Allied relief assistance to famine victims in Europe and Asia at the end of World War II. It was recognized early in 1944 that millions of people were in grave danger of mass famine as a result of the conflict and information was needed regarding the effects of semi-starvation — and the impact of various rehabilitation strategies — if post-war relief efforts were to be effective.
The study was developed in coordination with the Civilian Public Service (CPS) and the Selective Service System and utilized thirty-six men selected from a pool of over 100 CPS volunteers. The study was divided into three phases: A twelve week control phase where physiological and psychological observations were collected to establish a baseline for each subject; a twenty-four week starvation phase, over which period the caloric diet of each subject was dramatically reduced causing each participants to lose approximately 25% of their pre-starvation body weight; and, finally, a recovery phase where various rehabilitative diets were used to renourish the volunteers. Two subjects were dismissed for failing to maintain the diet restrictions imposed during the starvation phase of the experiment, and the data for two others was not used in the analysis of the results.
In 1950, Ancel Keys and his colleagues published the results of the Minnesota Starvation Experiment in a two-volume, 1,385 page text entitled The Biology of Human Starvation (University of Minnesota Press). While this definitive treatise came too late to substantially impact the post-war recovery efforts, preliminary pamphlets containing key results from the Minneapolis Starvation Experiment were produced and used extensively by aid workers in Europe and Asia in the months following the cessation of hostilities.
The primary objective of the Minnesota Starvation Experiment was to study in detail the physical and psychological effects of prolonged, famine-like semi-starvation on healthy men and their subsequent rehabilitation from this condition. To achieve these goals, the 12-month study was parsed into four distinct phases:
Control Period (12 weeks): This was a standardization period when the subjects received a controlled diet of approximate 3,200 calories of food each day. In addition, the clinical staff of the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene routinely conducted a series of anthropometric, physiological and psychological tests designed to characterize the physical and mental health of each participant under normal conditions;
Semi-Starvation Period (24 weeks): During the 6-month semi-starvation period, each subject’s dietary intake was cut to approximately 1,800 calories per day. Their meals were composed of foods that were expected to typify the diets of people in Europe during the latter stages of the war: potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, bread and macaroni.
Restricted Rehabilitation Period (12 weeks): The participants were divided into four groups of eight men; each group received a strictly-controlled rehabilitation diet consisting of one of four different caloric energy levels. In each energy level group, the men were further subdivided into subgroups that received distinct protein and vitamin supplements regimes. In this manner, the clinical staff examined various energy, protein and vitamin strategies for renourishing the subjects from the conditions of famine induced during the semi-starvation period.
Unrestricted Rehabilitation Period (8 weeks): For the final rehabilitation period, the caloric intake and food content was unrestricted, but carefully recorded and monitored.
During the starvation period, the subjects received two meals per day designed to induce the same level of nutritional stress for each participant. Since each subject had distinct metabolic characteristics, the diet of each man was adjusted throughout the starvation period to produce roughly a 25% total weight loss over the 24-week period at approximately the same loss rate tracking the prediction weight loss curve.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experimenthttp://www.amazon.com/Great-Starvation-Experiment-Starved-Millions/dp/0743270304 http://atomicamerica.blogspot.com/Mr. Tucker also has a book called
Atomic America; he's on Coast to Coast AM tonight. March 28 is also the anniversary of the accident at Three Mile Island.
