Deprived of food, our bodies do the best they can to keep us alive and functioning as long as possible. As the days pass, the rhythms of our lives change: our metabolism, our heartbeats, our hormones, even our thoughts shift to adjust to this period of scarcity. This response is evolutionarily engrained, following a variable but fairly prescribed path. In this episode, we trace that path, exploring what happens when our bodies are not given the energy stores they need, how patterns of metabolism alter, leading our bodies to consume themselves, and the profound consequences this has on every part of our physiology and psychology. We also tell the story of how we came to learn about these outcomes, chiefly through a WWII-era study called the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. This is the first of two episodes centered around malnutrition, starvation, and famine. Next week, we’ll explore the broad topic of famine, of which starvation is merely one component.
| History | Biology |
| Cannon, Geoffrey. “The rise and fall of dietetics and of nutrition science, 4000 BCE–2000 CE.” Public Health Nutrition 8.6a (2005): 701-705. | Butterly, J.R. and Shepherd, J., 2010. Hunger: the biology and politics of starvation. UPNE. |
| Carpenter, Kenneth J. “A short history of nutritional science: Part 1 (1785–1885).” The Journal of nutrition 133.3 (2003): 638-645. | Bhutta, Z.A., Berkley, J.A., Bandsma, R.H., Kerac, M., Trehan, I. and Briend, A., 2017. Severe childhood malnutrition. Nature reviews Disease primers, 3(1), pp.1-18. |
| Carpenter, Kenneth J. “A short history of nutritional science: part 2 (1885–1912).” The Journal of Nutrition 133.4 (2003): 975-984. | Wang, T., Hung, C.C. and Randall, D.J., 2006. The comparative physiology of food deprivation: from feast to famine. Annu. Rev. Physiol., 68(1), pp.223-251. |
| Carpenter, Kenneth J. “A short history of nutritional science: part 3 (1912–1944).” The Journal of nutrition 133.10 (2003): 3023-3032. | Trehan, I. and Manary, M.J., 2015. Management of severe acute malnutrition in low-income and middle-income countries. Archives of disease in childhood, 100(3), pp.283-287. |
| Eckert, Elke D., et al. “A 57-year follow-up investigation and review of the Minnesota study on human starvation and its relevance to eating disorders.” Archives of Psychology 2.3 (2018). | Bahwere, P., 2014. Severe acute malnutrition during emergencies: burden, management, and gaps. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 35(2_suppl1), pp.S47-S51. |
| Guetzkow, Harold Steere, and Paul Hoover Bowman. “Men and hunger: A psychological manual for relief workers.” (1946). | Jones, K.D. and Berkley, J.A., 2014. Severe acute malnutrition and infection. Paediatrics and international child health, 34(sup1), pp.S1-S29. |
| Kalm, Leah M., and Richard D. Semba. “They starved so that others be better fed: remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota experiment.” The Journal of nutrition 135.6 (2005): 1347-1352. | Otiti, M.I. and Allen, S.J., 2021. Severe acute malnutrition in low-and middle-income countries. Paediatrics and Child Health, 31(8), pp.301-307. |
| Perrin, Carleton E. “The chemical revolution.” Companion to the history of modern science. Routledge, 2020. 264-277. | Alou, M.T., Golden, M.H., Million, M. and Raoult, D., 2021. Difference between kwashiorkor and marasmus: Comparative meta-analysis of pathogenic characteristics and implications for treatment. Microbial pathogenesis, 150, p.104702. |
| Ridgway, Ella, et al. “Historical developments and paradigm shifts in public health nutrition science, guidance and policy actions: a narrative review.” Nutrients 11.3 (2019): 531. | May, T., de la Haye, B., Nord, G., Klatt, K., Stephenson, K., Adams, S., Bollinger, L., Hanchard, N., Arning, E., Bottiglieri, T. and Maleta, K., 2022. One-carbon metabolism in children with marasmus and kwashiorkor. EBioMedicine, 75. |
| Russell, Sharman Apt. “The hunger experiment.” The Wilson Quarterly (1976-) 29.3 (2005): 66-82. | May, T., Babirekere-Iriso, E., Traoré, M., Berbain, E., Ahmed, M., Amadi, B., Briend, A., Manary, M., Koroma, A.S., Hanchard, N. and Olsen, M.F., 2023. The neglect of kwashiorkor. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 7(11), pp.751-753. |
| Solomon, S. M., and D. F. Kirby. “The refeeding syndrome: a review.” Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition 14.1 (1990): 90-97. | Fasano, A., 2025. The physiology of hunger. New England Journal of Medicine, 392(4), pp.372-381. |
| Firsthand: The Minnesota semi-starvation experiment, University Publications, Archives & Special Collections, Colorado State University https://hdl.handle.net/10217/02.0036381 | Burnett, C.J., Li, C., Webber, E., Tsaousidou, E., Xue, S.Y., Brüning, J.C. and Krashes, M.J., 2016. Hunger-driven motivational state competition. Neuron, 92(1), pp.187-201. |
| Cahill Jr, G.F., 1970. Starvation in man. New England Journal of Medicine, 282(12), pp.668-675. | |
| Spettigue, W., Drouin, S., Isserlin, L., Palmert, S., Roscoe, C., Harrison, M., Kanbur, N., Bishop, J. and Norris, M.L., 2025. The Psychological, Cognitive, and Behavioural Effects of Starvation in Humans: A Scoping Review. European Eating Disorders Review, 33(4), pp.666-690. | |
| Collins, S., 2001. Changing the way we address severe malnutrition during famine. The Lancet, 358(9280), pp.498-501. | |
| Grey, K., Gonzales, G.B., Abera, M., Lelijveld, N., Thompson, D., Berhane, M., Abdissa, A., Girma, T. and Kerac, M., 2021. Severe malnutrition or famine exposure in childhood and cardiometabolic non-communicable disease later in life: a systematic review. BMJ global health, 6(3). |
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, you won’t pay a penny more, but we’ll get a small commission which helps us keep things running. Thanks!
One thought on “Episode 190 Starvation: More than hunger”
Thank you for this really interesting episode.
What really stood out to me that 1500 to 1800 kcal are considered semi-starvation with a not overly active lifestyle. I just checked an the recommended daily intake for an average adult in my country is 2000 kcal. Something doesn’t add up here. I don’t think most people actually only eat this little, regardless of body shape.
And what is even more crazy is the fact that fat people are regularly put on diets that contain only 1500 kcal or even less. Often this is sold as “not a diet but a lifestyle change”. No wonder people cannot keep this up (or end up with an eating disorder) and then gain their weight back as soon as they eat normally again.
On a different note. I’m German and my grandparents where born in the 1910s to 1920s and lived through WWII as teenagers or young adults. It affected them differently. My paternal grandmother got married very young and had already two kids at the end of the war when my grandfather was a POW. Getting enough food for her and her toddlers (my aunts) was pretty tough. Later in life she wasn’t that much worried about having enough food in the house but she always said that kids have to eat what’s on the table, no matter if you liked it or not. On the other hand she was always very conscious about her weight and often went on diets. Her relationship to food was complicated to say the least. My other grandmother was very different. She loved to cook and enjoy food. She never wasted it but she also never made you eat stuff you didn’t like. Both of them taught me a lot.
Comments are closed.