I don’t remember how old I was when I read about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. Thirty-six young men starved during WWII so the War Department could understand the best way to bring starving people back to health.
Here is a really interesting article in which the now-elderly participants remember what it was like.
What I remember best from my introduction to it years ago was that the men became obsessed with spices, condiments, gum, recipes, and cookbooks. They combined weird spices, and made reductions of boiled coffee, and then I imagine they whisked the spices and coffee reduction with jelly and made glazed rutabagas. (Evidently, two became chefs afterward.)
There are also stories of these starving men buying donuts for children and dinners for girlfriends just so they could watch someone else eating food. (I suppose that could be what Gary’s doing when he comes back from the grocery store with Pretzel Flipz and broccoli soup.)
Anyway, I think of that experiment whenever I combine two unusual tastes. If it tastes good, I worry a little that I’m starving.
I had a sip of Muscle Milk chocolate protein shake followed in quick succession by a sip of orange Crush before today’s lunch, and it tasted pretty good. I was going to stir them up with a spoon until I thought better of it. I’ll have to try a cocktail of Crush and Muscle milk tomorrow after a full breakfast.
What are we naming it? A Christmas Orange? A Muscle Crush? An Orange Cow? A Moo-Crush? A MMorange? An Orange Moo-lious?
2 responses to “Minnesota starvation experiment”
Orange and chocolate do, in theory, go well together, but I’d be concerned about… texture. Esp. if the protein shake can curdle?
But also yikes to that experiment, and the “let’s give people malaria” one. At least they had semi-valid reasons for those experiments (vs. “let’s just see what happens if we don’t provide treatment for syphilis” in Tuskegee… when treatment is readily available and seeing what happens wasn’t at all necessary).
KC – Well, last year it would not, but as of 2026, it has actual milk again.