It turns out that the bulk of the scientific literature on starvation physiology comes from the 1940s. You can fucking guess why.
It turns out that people in the United States and other members of the Alliies were extremely interested in how to care for chronically starved populations starting around 1944.
A large amount of our data on the human body's response to starvation comes from one single study https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment
"The experiment was planned in cooperation with the Civilian Public Service (CPS) and the Selective Service System, using volunteers selected from the ranks of conscientious objectors who had been inducted into public wartime service. Ancel Keys obtained approval from the War Department to select participants from the CPS."