Tag: Minnesota experiment

The renowned Minnesota Starvation Experiment demonstrated that healthy young men, when subjected to a 50% caloric reduction for six months, experienced profound physical, psychological, and social changes. Semi-starvation, or starvation syndrome, is this state of chronic insufficient energy intake, affecting the body and mind in devastating and often reversible ways, regardless of initial body weight.

In 1944, physiologist Ancel Keys and his team launched a year-long study that subjected 36 healthy male volunteers to semi-starvation to better understand the effects of malnutrition. The famous starvation experiment was designed to inform post-war famine relief efforts in Europe and remains one of the most cited studies in nutrition and psychology.