fat thursday

[moominmolly]

From Junkfood Science, via the_xtina, an article on the Minnesota Starvation Study (about the effects of dieting on healthy adults) that I found quite interesting.

EDIT, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD: What I found interesting was: the mental effects of this deprivation on the healthy, normal-weight patients; the idea of patriotic conscientious objectors in a medical study; and the attitudes surrounding the study in general. The whole article was chock full of interesting attitudes toward the world. The general tone of the article and the obvious bias of the author are not my own.

Comments

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

It seems like it would be hard to do this without feeding them foods they weren't used to (presumably many of them would be able to tell, with foods they *are* used to, if they're getting a normal amount). And that would be a hell of a confound.

[dilletante.livejournal.com]

it would, however, be easy enough to do the same to the control group.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know how feasible it would really be :)

[dbang.livejournal.com]

Oh it would be totally easy. Give people a placebo pill and tell them it will automatically limit their appetites to about 70% of previously, so go ahead and eat what they want and it will automatically be less. Tell them to write it all down and then confirm for them they are eating less.

People are amazingly gullible.