The study was offered as an alternative to military service for conscientious objectors—they could either go fight in the war or allow themselves to be actively starved for months. In 1944, thirty-six white men who had been vigorously screened to be both physically and mentally healthy were enrolled. Over the course of the study, which lasted for a year, most of the men were starved to prunes until they began to resemble survivors from concentration camps. The study also offered a gruesome insight into the psychological effects of starvation—almost all the men experienced extreme emotional
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