Minnesota Starvation Experiment

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment was a scientific study that happened a long time ago, when some grown-ups wanted to learn more about what happens to our bodies when we don't have enough food to eat.

Imagine that you have a big bag of toys that you really love to play with. Now imagine that you are only allowed to play with a few toys from that bag every day, but you have to put back any toys that you don't play with. After a while, you might start to feel really cranky and tired, and it might be hard for you to learn new things or focus on your schoolwork. That's kind of like what happened to the people in the experiment.

The grown-ups who were doing the experiment wanted to see what would happen to people's bodies and minds if they only ate a little bit of food each day, like they might have to do if they were stuck in a place with no access to food. They chose some healthy young men who were interested in helping them with their research, and they gave them very small amounts of food to eat each day for several months.

At first, the men were okay with the reduced amount of food, but soon they started having all sorts of problems. They felt very weak and tired all the time, and they even started to have trouble thinking clearly or remembering things that they had learned before. They lost a lot of weight, their muscles got smaller, and they started feeling very hungry all the time.

The grown-ups who were doing the experiment wrote down everything that happened to the men during the study, and they used the information to learn more about how the human body works when we don't get enough to eat. They also realized that it is really important for everyone to eat enough healthy food each day, so that we can stay strong and feel good!