What is the Minnesota Hunger Experiment?

II. World Warbrought destruction to the whole world. While the victorious states as a result of the war had multiplied their power, both the losing and the losing states were thinking about how to get through the days that would be quite difficult. Especially international organizations, people hit the European and Asian parts of to avoid famine He was trying to come up with a solution.

One of those who are looking for a solution on this issue, Physiologist It was Ancel Keys. Keys, who was able to find state support for many issues thanks to his contributions to the army, aims to see the physical and psychological effects of hunger on people and to help people in the regions we have just mentioned. Minnesota hunger experiment performed. Let’s look at the details together.

The hunger experiment was conducted in the Americas, not in famine-stricken Asia and Europe. For this reason, volunteers were starved to perform the experiment:

In order to carry out the experiment volunteer participants had to. For this, on theWill you starve for them to be fed better?” leaflets were used. As a result, hundreds of people applied and as a result of the eliminations. 36 volunteersmet at the University of Minnesota. In this context, the experiment began on 19 November 1944.

There were four separate stages in the 1-year process. In each of these, all participants were followed in detail. The first 3 months were dieted to bring all participants to a certain standard.

In this first part, participants’ body weights losing 25 percent had to. You can think of this process as a process of bringing all participants to the same standard to facilitate follow-up. After all, later on, their own bodies according to your needs They will get calories.

The process of bringing everyone to the standard 3 months lasted and according to the weights gained during this process. 3,200 calories per day receipt. The real challenge would start from here.

After the first three months, the calorie intake was halved for everyone. And for six months:

We can call this a semi-starvation process. Because the participants continued to be fed. But the amount of calories they take in a day to 1,570 calories was lowered. Including breakfast and lunch during this process only 2 meals They had a chance to eat. The meals here were simple foods such as potatoes, bread and radishes, just as in famine countries.

In the process, many people became so weak that their ribs were become visible came. Moreover, there was not much left who felt as strong as before. There were also decreases in their sexual desire, heart rate, and body temperature. As if these weren’t enough, ‘food’ is now to obsess came.

Some dishes as if more He was diluting it using water to see. Others could not get their heads up from cookbooks. Among others, constantly on food love was swirling.

All they had to do was starve:

From the beginning to the end of the experiment, one of them keeping a diary and tens of kilometers on treadmills to walk was also requested. So the conditions were quite challenging. But only 3 people He chose to leave before the experiment was over. What motivated the others was, as you can imagine, the lives they could have saved.

After 6 months, which was difficult and weakened the participants both physically and psychologically, the 3-month ‘limited’ healing phase was started.

• Before and after the recovery phase

At this stage, the participants are determined according to the amount of energy they need to take. divided into groups and new diets were determined according to those needs. During this process, the medical teams followed the diet of each person in great detail. The average number of calories consumed by the participants during this time period 2000 to 3200kcal was among

In the 8-week final phase, all limitations were removed, and then the experiment was terminated:

At this point, as you can imagine, everyone almost went to the food. hung up. Even some people without overeating It is said that he is even in the hospital.

What did this experiment do?

This experiment, of course, was only for Americans experiencing famine. not made to understand. Going beyond that, he revealed the physical and psychological reactions that hunger causes in the human body. For example, when people are dealing with hunger, weak their sexual urges or weakening We can show you.

From a psychological point of view, when people struggle with hunger, they experience both adverse events and positive events. to enlarge or to get depressed was found to be prone. Moreover, the obsession with food did not go away even after the study. Finally, let us state that the researchers shared the results they found in full after 5 years. What are your thoughts on the experiment?

resources: Kardelen C. Ergin, Mathematical.org, American Psychological Association, Evolution Tree