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In 1944, physiologist Ancel Keys began the Minnesota Starvation Experiment with 36 conscientious objectors who volunteered to go hungry. After three months of normal eating, the men spent six months on about half their usual food while walking miles each week, losing about a quarter of their weight. The study recorded the physical and mental effects, then tested ways to refeed them.

Ancel Keys, Minnesota Starvation Experiment, 1944–1945

HealthScienceHistory

The story behind the card

Conscientious objectors were men who refused military service on moral or religious grounds; in the United States many did alternative public service instead, and these volunteers chose this study. The project was designed to guide famine relief in war-torn Europe. As the months passed, many became obsessed with food, reading cookbooks and planning menus, grew irritable and depressed, and lost interest in almost everything else; some effects lasted long into recovery. Keys and his colleagues published the results in 1950 as The Biology of Human Starvation. Because an experiment like it would not be allowed today, it is still cited in famine relief and in treating eating disorders.

Türkçe oku
Fizyolog Ancel Keys, 1944'te 36 vicdani retçiyle Minnesota Açlık Deneyi'ni başlattı; bu erkekler aç kalmaya gönüllü olmuştu. Üç ay normal beslenmenin ardından altı ay boyunca olağan yemeklerinin yaklaşık yarısıyla yetindiler ve her hafta kilometrelerce yürüdüler; vücut ağırlıklarının aşağı yukarı dörtte birini kaybettiler. Çalışma açlığın bedene ve ruha etkilerini kaydetti, ardından onları yeniden beslemenin yollarını denedi.

Vicdani retçiler, ahlaki ya da dinî nedenlerle askerlik yapmayı reddeden kişilerdir; ABD'de bunların birçoğu askerlik yerine kamu hizmetinde çalıştı, bu gönüllüler de bu deneye katılmayı seçti. Proje, savaşın yıktığı Avrupa'da kıtlık yardımına yol göstermek için tasarlanmıştı. Aylar geçtikçe birçoğu yemeğe takıntı derecesinde kafa yormaya, yemek kitapları okuyup menüler kurmaya başladı; sinirli ve mutsuz oldular, başka neredeyse hiçbir şeyle ilgilenmez hâle geldiler. Bazı etkiler iyileşme döneminde de uzun süre sürdü. Keys ve ekibi sonuçları 1950'de The Biology of Human Starvation (İnsan Açlığının Biyolojisi) adıyla yayımladı. Benzeri bugün etik açıdan yapılamayacağı için, bu çalışmaya kıtlık yardımında ve yeme bozukluklarının tedavisinde hâlâ başvurulur.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Minnesota Starvation Experiment
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