This morning, I listened to The Diet Culture Rebel Podcast by Bonnie Roney.
Bonnie is a Registered Dietitian, Intuitive Eating Counselor, and Eating Disorder Recovery Coach.
She shared the findings of a study done in the 1940s called "The Minnesota Starvation Experiment."
The goal of the experiment was to discover how humans respond to food when it's restricted.
The study consisted of men "considered to be in superior health, mind, and body."
For six months, they were put on a "semi-starvation” diet of about 1700 calories a day. (In context, compared to many diets and lifestyle programs today, their “semi-starvation” diet consisted of a relatively generous amount of food.)
Prior to the experiment, these men had a normal relationship with food.
However, throughout the study and afterwards, their relationship with food drastically changed.
Within six months, they began obsessing about food.
Some of the men started compulsively collecting recipes and studying cookbooks. A portion of them started making their meals last for several hours; others started eating really quickly.
Several of the participants would take food from the other men in the study; and others began isolating themselves.
The authors of the study noted the development of mood disorders, eating disorders—and the participants reported a huge drop in sex drive—all as a result of eating less food.
Here are a few of the participants’ experiences:
Stuffed until bursting at the seams—to the point of being nearly sick—and still felt hungry
Had to use a lot of discipline to prevent eating so much as to become ill
Ate until uncomfortably full
Had so little control over food that the participant simply stayed away from food—because he couldn’t find a point of satiation—even when stuffed to the gills
Looking back over my own “semi-starvation” experiences, it begs the question, “Was I really addicted to food, or was my body merely starving for nutrients and calories?”
At age six, when my mom put me on my first “semi-starvation” diet, I developed binge eating. (Binge eating is secretly eating large quantities of food in brief amounts of time.)
Later, in my teen years, I quit eating altogether. It was easier for me to skip meals than to try to control the overwhelming urge to eat unusually large quantities of food.
Unfortunately, as a result of that early exposure to dieting, I developed an unhealthy relationship with food. By age seventeen, a physician stated I had a pathological disorder (anorexia nervosa). . .when in reality, my body was semi-starved from years of exposure to diet culture. (I don’t blame my mom; she was a victim of semi-starvation dieting herself.)
On November 19, 2023, I quit restricting calories in order to lose weight. I stopped weighing myself and just focused solely on eating high-nutrient foods again.
And interestingly, I haven’t had an uncontrollable urge to overeat, binge eat, or skip meals since. (To read how I developed an eating disorder after becoming a weight loss success story, click here.)
Although I wholeheartedly support getting rid of pesticides, herbicides, GMO's, ultra processed foods, chronic diseases, and such. . .one of my biggest concerns with Make America Healthy Again is the potential emphasis on the obesity epidemic in America.
Perhaps the root of that so-called epidemic. . . is the semi-starvation epidemic.
Perhaps one of the root causes of chronic diseases are maladaptive eating behaviors such as chronic overeating, binge eating, and the like.
Perhaps semi-starvation dieting is partially to blame for America’s health crisis.
Even lifestyle change programs can become fixated on weight loss to the point calorie deficits become normalized.
Our bodies need wholesome nutrition and sufficient amounts of calories in order to function optimally.
With the New Year approaching, be aware of semi-starvation diets, weight loss challenges, and even lifestyle programs that promote calorie deficits for aggressive weight loss.
And whatever you do, protect your children from dieting. Their brains are still developing and unable to withstand the onslaught of semi-starvation.
Even if you aren’t restricting your child’s food intake, they’re watching your relationship with food—and the words you use concerning various body sizes and shapes—including your own.
Bottom line, the men in the semi-starvation experiment entered the study in “superior health, mind, and body”. . . and developed maladaptive eating behaviors by the conclusion of it.
Let that sink in.
To listen to the full episode of Bonnie Roney’s The Diet Culture Rebel Podcast, click here.
Emily Boller, wife, mother, artist, and author is on a mission to create expressive works of art in her lifetime; and to bring awareness to the potentially harmful traps of diet-wellness culture.
In her free time, she loves to chase sunrises, grow flowers and vegetables, and can homemade soups.