Study Participants Eating, 1944, The Life Picture Collection
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In 1944, as World War II drew to a close, there was widespread concern over the realization that millions of people in Europe and Asia were suffering from severe famine as a result of the conflict. Beginning in November of 1944, the University of Minnesota performed the Minnesota Semi-Starvation Study in an attempt to discover the most effective ways to rehabilitate those suffering from starvation. The thirty-six study participants were given small amounts of food for six months, facilitating a loss of about 25% of their body weight. After the starvation period, each participant was exposed to different amounts and varieties of rehabilitation foods. The findings from the study were published in a series of preliminary pamphlets that were used extensively by aid workers in Europe and Asia after the end of the war.
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