Gertrude must have read the article in Life magazine in 1950 about Ansel Keys’ study on the biology of human starvation. WWII had ended and there were so many reports of all the people who had starved to death that it was astounding. But some people had managed to survive, and Keys wanted to know what were the consequences of the deprivation.
The study was conducted on healthy young men who were willing to go through a one year controlled study of hunger and deprivation of food. The experiment was divided into three stages. The first phase of 3 months was a controlled eating program where the average caloric intake was 3,000 calories/day. The second phase was a 6 month restriction consisting of ½ of the normal intake or ~1500 calories/day. The outcomes on the weight loss and changes to body composition were what were expected with loss of weight and loss of fat and muscle. (even visceral muscle tissue such at the heart muscle). But the psychological changes were not expected.
Here is some of what was observed during the food restriction phase of the study:
The men planned how they would handle their food for the day.
Some were conflicted in weather to stall out eating or to ravenously gulp down their food.
The men were preoccupation with food.
Excessive gum chewing (one man chewed 40 packs/day.
Increase in smoking and some non-smokers started to smoke.
They eat every last crumb of food and some licked their plates clean.
They began to collect recipes and read cookbooks
They began to withdraw from group activated, they had planned.
The last phase or the refeeding part stage also had interesting observations. The rations were increased gradually for 1500 to over 4000 calories/day.
There was an inability for the men to be satiated or satisfied, even when the food restrictions were remove and the men could eat as much as they wanted.
Hunger pangs increased.
They continued to lick their plates.
Sleepiness and headache, constipation, heartburn increased.
The men experience weight gain of fat and felt bloated.
I know from my many years of work as a dietitian that many people who experienced weight loss also experienced these same symptoms.
Since 95 % of dieters, no matter what the program, regain all the weight they lost within 18 months of dieting, they reported depression.
If anyone is interested in reading the study it is still for sale on Amazon and here is a link to the summary:
Comments