The sleeping dragon of rebellion 26 fortunate compatriots, healthy young men were starved until they lost 25 % of their body weight over a period of six months. While the focus was on the physical impact of this process, what turned out to be much more fascinating was the psychological impact on these healthy young men. Basically it turned into an exercise, way before its time, in how to create the‘ sensitive new age guy’. As these men lost weight, food became one of the key subjects of discussion. Menus, recipes and ingredients were hot topics. One man decided to become a chef. Most impressively, they replaced photographs of naked women on bedroom walls with pictures of food. At night the men even dreamed about food! Now, remember, these were mentally healthy young men who were selected specifically for their‘ psycho-biological stamina’ i. e. their strength of character. Then the refeeding stage of the experiment began. During the three-month refeeding phase, even when the men on the highest caloric intake were physically full‘ they wanted more – their appetites were insatiable.’‘ The men continued to be concerned with food … above all else.’ After the end of the experiment‘ gluttony’ was the rule as‘ generally, the men ate more food than they were prepared to cope with’. 4 At follow-up over a year later a number of men exceeded their pre-starvation weight. This finding, that the end result of restriction and refeeding may be an overall increase in weight, is perhaps one of the greatest concerns about dieting. More recent research has confirmed this problem, which is now known as‘ diet cycling’. The Minnesota Experiment taught us a number of lessons, but most relevant here is the way in which these men became preoccupied by food and then over-ate, through being deprived. The big question is: do these 4 Franklin JC, Burtrum CS, Brozek J, Keys A. Observations on human behavior in experimental semistarvation and rehabilitation. Human Behavior 1948:28-45.