Food for thought pun intended

 I re-read Martha Beck’s book The 4 Day Win. In the chapter where she discussed the physical and psychological reactions to severe calorie restricted diets.

 

She asked us to consider a study published in 1950 by an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota named Ancel Keys, a study that somehow never gets mentioned in diet books. I’ve read a lot on this subject and had never heard of this study.

 

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment

 

The investigation, in 1944, 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 to produce a definitive treatise on the subject of human starvation and to use the scientific results produced to guide the Allied relief assistance to famine victims in Europe and Asia at the end of World War II. 

 

They recruited volunteers from the Civilian Public Service and the Selective Service System, using volunteers selected from the ranks of conscientious objectors who had been inducted into public wartime service. (ROFL)

 

The 12-month clinical study was divided into four phases.

 

1.Control Period (12 weeks): This was a standardization period when the subjects received a controlled diet of approximately 3,200 calories a day. The diet was adjusted to bring them close to their ideal weight. The men were required to walk 22 miles a week during the study.

 

2. Semi-Starvation Period (24 weeks 6 mo.)

Their dietary intake was immediately cut to 1,560 kilocalories 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. 

 

3. Restricted Rehabilitation Period (12 weeks): The men were divided into eight man groups receiving differing regimens of protein and vitamin supplements to examine various energy, protein and vitamin strategies for re-nourishing the subjects. 

 

4. Unrestricted Rehabilitation Period (8 weeks): The caloric intake and food content was unrestricted but carefully recorded and monitored.  

 

At the end of the study the results were published in pamphlet form and given to groups providing foreign aid food services in Europe

 

In 1950 in a two-volume, 50 chapter, 1,385-page text titled The Biology of Human Starvation, University of Minnesota Press was published. The work contains an extensive analysis of the physiological and psychological data collected during the study.

 

The study confirmed that prolonged semi-starvation produces significant increases in depression, hysteria and hypochondriasis which is excessive worry about having a disease.  Most of the subjects experienced periods of severe emotional distress and depression.

 

The rehab phase proved to be psychologically the hardest phase for most of the men with extreme effects including self-mutilation where one subject amputated three fingers of his hand with an axe. Participants exhibited a preoccupation with food, both during the starvation period and the rehabilitation phase. Sexual interest was drastically reduced, and the volunteers showed signs of social withdrawal and isolation. The participants reported a decline in concentration, comprehension and judgment.

 

One of the crucial observations was that the physical effects of the induced semi-starvation closely approximate the conditions experienced by people with a range of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. As a result of the study it has been postulated that many of the profound social and psychological effects of these disorders may result from undernutrition, and recovery depends on physical re-nourishment as well as psychological treatment.

 

IMHO, this study accurately describes restrictive dieting.