MRE's or "meals ready to eat" are supposed to provide US troops with a field ration. However, especially in Afghanistan, that field ration is NOT very good.
"The MRE doesn't provide enough calories," Moore said in a telephone interview from the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, Calif. "If you're in the mountains, you need 4,500 calories a day. Even if a soldier eats everything in the MRE, which they rarely do, they're going to be running deficient of calories, and over a period of time they're going to lose weight."
A MRE provides about 1200-1300 calories per-meal. 3 meals a day is only 3600-3900 calories...
more after the fold
The body of this diary is from this article: Field rations are falling short in fueling troops
Some quotes:
After interviewing more than 150 medics, officers and troops on the ground, Moore concluded that the portable rations called "meals ready to eat" (MREs) - 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 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 body weight during their deployment. At least one soldier was evacuated due to malnutrition and a 60-pound weight loss."
It should be noted that this only a problem for troops in the field and only when they are in field for days at a time. In Iraq, and/or in the towns/cities of Afghanistan, the normal cafeterias’ ration does provide the necessary nutrition. (of course, there, Haliburton does get to screw our troops in other ways)
Andrew Young, a researcher at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine at Natick, said his agency had begun collecting data on the weight of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has already found anecdotal evidence that service members, particularly those in Afghanistan, are losing 20 to 35 pounds on their deployments.
Much of the problem is caused by heavy packaging, Young said. Troops on dismounted patrols often "field-strip" their bulky MRE packs, bringing along only part of the meals, to lighten their rucksacks and save room for cargo such as ammunition. In the process, they throw away calories, Young said.
Now, the military is aware of the problem and they are trying to fix it.
This fall a new "first strike ration" will be introduced.
some details:
Enhanced mobility...All components of this lightweight ration are familiar, eat-out-of-hand foods that require little or no preparation by the Warfighter. Innovative packaging technologies enable the beverages to be reconstituted and consumed directly from the drink pouch.
Characteristics...The FSR has a minimum two year shelf life at 80°F and provides an average of 2900 calories per day. The FSR has nine meals per shipping container consisting of three each of three different menus.
Lightweight...When compared to three MREs, the FSR weight and cube of one day’s subsistence is reduced by approximately 50%.
Hopefully, it'll work better than MRE's.
Although... 1 "first strike ration" is only 2900 calories, not 3600 calories of 3 MRE's, so in order to work a soldier will have to eat 2 "first strike ration" to get the necessary nutrition... Because if they don't... They will be eating even less food than before...
thank you for reading
jeff