Health and Medicine

World War II K-ration issued to Minnesota soldier

"Human Guinea Pigs"

"Human Guinea Pigs" -- A 1945 Associated Press photo from an article about conscientious objectors' service shows Keys's subjects under study on the treadmill, toward the end of the year-long starvation project.

photograph of experiment subjects displaying "gaunt and weak" bodies

Volunteers Gerald Wilsnack and Marshall Sutton; "Gaunt and weak were the 'guinea pigs' as starvation test ended."

photograph of experiment subjects lounging on the grass in the sunshine

Volunteers Gerald Wilsnack, Marshall Sutton and Jasper Garner "relax in the sun between their daily routine."

photograph of a subject of the experiment receiving an x-ray checkup

Volunteer Jim Plaugher of Fresno, California, at an x-ray checkup.

photograph of an experiment subject reading a cookbook

Volunteer Harold Blickenstaff "consoles himself during the months of the starvation diets reading cookbooks."

Ancel Keys

1946 University of Minnesota Portrait of Dr. Ancel Keys, Ph.D.

The Starvation Experiment of Dr. Ancel Keys, 1944-1945

From November 1944 to late October 1945, Dr. Ancel Keys paid close attention to hunger. He supervised thirty-six young male volunteers in a "starvation experiment," funded by the U.S. Army. This landmark effort at the University of Minnesota led to broad new understandings of nutrition and health.