Posted on 03/29/2007 9:46:02 PM PDT by jmc1969
When Lt. Dave Moore visited infantry units in the remote, rugged mountains of Afghanistan late last year, the Navy medical officer was surprised to hear from many soldiers and Marines that they had lost significant weight.
After conducting more than 150 interviews with medics, officers and troops on the ground, Moore concluded that the portable rations called "Meals, Ready-to-Eat" — long derided by troops, but valued by the Pentagon for their indestructibility — were not doing the job, causing the soldiers to shed pounds that they very much needed.
The standard Meal, Ready to Eat [MRE] does not provide adequate nutrition for dismounted operations in this type of terrain," Moore wrote in his report. "Many Marines and soldiers lost 20 to 40 pounds of bodyweight during their deployment. At least one soldier was evacuated due to malnutrition and a 60-pound weight loss."
Moore's conclusions have raised concern among military leaders, as well as designers of the field rations at the Natick Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center outside Boston.
Moore stressed in an interview that the service members he surveyed represented only a small portion of those fighting in Afghanistan — infantry troops deployed to desolate locations where MREs and local cuisine were the only options — but nonetheless he concluded that up to 1,300-calorie MREs were falling short.
A nutrition deficit, he said, could potentially result in fatigue, impaired brain function and lackluster performance.
Recognizing the seriouslness of the reports, the Combat Feeding Directorate is planning to ship about 4,000 prototypes of a new meal called the First Strike Ration to Iraq and Afghanistan. Designed for limited use, the ration contains about twice the calories of an MRE.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
You guys should be given high- protein, high-carb meals - even some saturated fat wouldn't hurt you and it would improve the taste. I can see why beef sticks are so popular.
Give me old fashion C-rations. After you eat the stuff, you feel stuffed. Everything is absorbed by the body, and after several days you get your first BM and it comes out like a small rock. MRE are too light and have a 5 year shelf life. C rats come in a sealed can with a 25 to 30 year shelf life. Empty metal can has many great field uses.
"Actually... I kinda liked the food :) But I am wierd like that. They were very filling though I dont see how they could eat 2 of them."
I like them both, C-Rations and MREs, the only ones that sucked were the Vietnam era LRRPs, that first batch of MREs had some pretty bad parts also, like the dehydrated sausage patty (if I remember correctly).
If I can find a couple of cases of MREs cheap enough at garage sales, I have to ration them to keep from finishing them off too quickly, it is like a party in every pouch.
You got that right!
Wonder what the salt and fat content of your C rats was?
LOL!
I know some of the troopers have been getting backpacker chow in their care packages - Mountain House, that sort of stuff - but I don't know anyone having reported on how well they work. Anyone know anything about it?
TMI
Um...*cough*...I assume you would eat them, right?
Maybe some of these guys were slightly overweight to begin with and after doing some hard marching they are starting to lose the flab?
Oh, Oh, you just dated yourself.
We liked the C-rats also. 40-50 years ago.
This thread is good for a laugh.
This is interesting but soldiers are using a lot of energy doing patrols and carrying all their gear.
I watched a PBS show called Frontier House in 2001. In one episode Mr. Clune thought he was turning into skin and bones. He was constantly hunger and felt his wife was not feeding him enough.
He ate high calorie diet to meet the demands of intense hard labor but Mr. Gordon wanted more food.
Later on a Marine Corp doctor came to the homestead. He gave Mr. Gordon a physical. He told Mr. Clune he was just doing fine. He was in tip top shape which most Marines would envy for. He told Mr. Clune he was burning all the calories from plowing manually and putting his homestead together.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/frontierhouse/families/diary_gordon.html
"Haha, with the smokes included!"
The best field rations I ever had were the French ones, they came in a box about the size of a Kleenex box and it included canned cheeses, Pate, a small bottle of cognac, and a full 20 pack of French Gauloises cigarettes.
I found my first box of French field rations the best I ever tasted, it wasn't until lunch rolled around that I found out the box was for all three meals.
Hopefully NOT in suppository form...;)
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