Day 48 - PMSing Men On Diets: The Ancel Keys Experiment

This study is so profound I discuss it with every client and doctor who is tentative about the work that I do. Is abandoning the diet cycle really necessary?

In the 1940's Ancel Keys, an American scientist, did a study on semi-starvation. He took a bunch of college-age guys who had to pass extensive medical and psychological exams to be deemed superior in health of mind and body. They were put on a six month diet and exercise regimen to ascertain the effects of a semi-starvation diet.

What happened to these men?

They had an increase in obsessive thoughts about food. They started to talk about and think about food all the time, to the point of collecting recipes and studying cookbooks (this was in the 1940's!!!). They had food cravings and they started playing with their food. They were suddenly uncertain of how to eat; should they eat slow and lengthen it out or eat it all really fast? They stopped having any interest in girls or sex. They started to develop mood disorders and severe depression. They became socially withdrawn and isolated.

One participant who worked in a grocery store suffered from a complete loss of will power and ended up eating a couple cookies, a sack of popcorn and two bananas. He suffered from severe emotional upset with nausea, and vomited. He was horribly guilty and expressed disgust and self-criticism. What does this sound like? An eating disorder. Some of the men developed eating disorders.

There were extreme reactions to the psychological effects during the experiment including self-mutilation. One subject amputated three fingers of his hand with an axe, though the subject was unsure if he had done so intentionally or accidentally.

How much food were these men eating?  They were averaging 1700 calories.

1700 calories for a college student is like today's version of dieting.

In this thousand page study the impact of food restriction is obvious. Strong and able men, screened to be able to withstand physical and mental hardship necessary to complete the study, suffered extreme psychological and biological upset from going on a mild version of dieting in America today.

Dieting and restricting does not work. Developing a healthy relationship with food and body does.

Nat

Thanks to Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD and Elyse Resch, MS, RD, FADA for introducing me to this work.