Not Eating Enough Overcoming Underconsumption of Military Operational Rations (1995) / Chapter Skim
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17 The Physical Eating Situation
17 The Physical Eating Situation
Pages 319-340
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From page 319... ...
The situation present during military field training would seem to be the antithesis of laboratory research in that researchers collecting data in this physical environment have minimal control over the factors that influence eating. Nonetheless, the disparate situations of lab and field can be brought together if one accepts Collier's (1989)
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From page 320... ...
Soldiers eating in a field scenario provide one instance of a complex physical environment in which accomplishing one's mission, obtaining sufficient nutrients, and meeting other needs or desires requires soldiers (and their commanders) to adopt strategies (preplanned or not)
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The importance of Woods' concepts in trying to understand underconsumption of operational rations lies in increasing one's awareness that not only must soldiers strive to follow the most useful strategies available in optimizing food intake, accomplishing their duties, and so forth, but they must attempt this in a physical environment where adaptive behaviors especially anticipatory ones-learned previously may be relatively ineffective, inoperable, or even inappropriate. This is not to say that particular proximate factors such as physiological variations, social conditions, or palatability are either unrelated or unimportant in determining food consumption.
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From page 322... ...
This trend appears to be the case across a range of climate conditions, types of soldiers, and duration of the field training. Although other papers in this volume address specific risks of underconsumption and possible solutions, it is clear that soldiers generally do underconsume and that the low average consumption indicates that a significant number of soldiers are markedly below recommended energy intake.
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From page 323... ...
Some of these factors will have a relatively direct impact on ration consumption, while other aspects, although not specifically linked to eating, can be expected to have gross effects on behavior. General Conditions The goal of field exercises is to prepare soldiers and commanders for performing in real-life conflict situations.
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an ~ Cal o 40 o o 30 ~3 AS z P: 20 O _ =F BODY WEIGHT HYDRATION FIGURE 17-2 Body weight loss and change in hydration during deployment as a percentage of total change during an l l-d field training exercise. SOURCE: Adapted from Popper et al.
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A substantial body of human and animal research on issues related to meal timing exists that covers meal frequency, regularity and timing of meal schedules? and time permitted to eat.
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Meal Duration Meal Regularity and Predictability Research has shown that insufficient time for eating is associated with a variety of deleterious consequences, including poorer consumption and greater loss of body weight, even in the presence of equivalent food intake. Kanarek and Collier (1983)
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From page 327... ...
Ration Aspects of the Field Situation Sensory Cues Eating under normal conditions is associated with a large set of sensory cues that are markedly reduced when soldiers eat in the field. Given the packaging of operational rations in plain cardboard boxes and flexible retorts 2 Retort pouches are opaque and flexible in nature.
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From page 328... ...
Similarly, as with most processed foods that have extended shelf life, operational rations have historically provided limited tactile or gustatory variety for the consumer. Sensory cues can add to or detract from the perceptions of foods and play a significant role in food choices and consumption (Mattes, 1987; Rolls, 1990; Warwick et al., 1993~.
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From page 329... ...
of operational rations in packages designed to be easier to open indicated that soldiers in an active training scenario did find the new packages easier to open and liked them more overall than the standard packaging. Average consumption of the Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE)
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From page 330... ...
Conversely, lack of control is deleterious (e.g., Seligman's learned helplessness t1975~. Soldiers eating operational rations have minimal control over portion size as a strategy for optimizing food consumption and frequently report that ration portion sizes should be larger (Engell and Popper, 1988~.
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lend support to the idea that by increasing the soldier's ability to anticipate meals, to have more of the cues associated with eating a meal, and generally to increase the strategies or options open to the soldier, increased food consumption will be seen (King et al., 1992; Kramer et al., 1993; Salter et al., 1991~. The larger meal sizes seen when soldiers eat rations designed for group feeding compared to those designed for the individual soldier also raise the possible role of socially mediated influences upon ration consumption.
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From page 332... ...
are apt to be effective only to the extent that they give soldiers strategies to use in optimizing ration consumption or to improve the cost/benefit ratio of consumption behaviors. The environment of actual combat situations or realistic training scenarios will likely preclude soldiers' ability to meet energy needs on a consistent basis.
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From page 333... ...
In conclusion: Despite current limits on scientific knowledge and restrictions inherent to combat field feeding, military planners, scientists, and commanders do have options for improving the "economics" of the feeding situation. Commanders arid foodservice personnel frequently can improve the economics of the physical eating situation in one or more of the following ways: beverage and ration supply during deployment; when and how long soldiers can eat; ration type to maximize sensory and hedonic appeal and minimize preparation and effort to eat; feeding soldiers in groups rather than individually; arid creating a more "meal"-like situation (e.g., serving food from tables, setting food up to enhance visual appeal, and soldier choice)
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Engell, and C.P. Shaw 1987 Nutritional status and physical and mental performance of special operations soldiers consuming the Ration, Lightweight or the Meal, Ready-to-Eat military field ration during a 30-day field training exercise.
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Tulley 1992 Nutrition and hydration status of soldiers consuming the 18-man Artic Tray Pack ration module with either the Meal, Ready-to-Eat or the Long Life Ration Packet during a cold weather field training exercise. Technical Report T4-92.
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Askew 1988 A comparison of the Meal, Ready-to-Eat, Ration Cold Weather and Ration, Lightweight nutrient intakes during moderate altitude cold weather field training operations. Technical Report T5-89.
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1985 Insulin levels, hunger, and food intake: An example of feedback loops in body weight regulation. Health Psychol.
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in terms F MATTHEW KRAMER: Except that I think the data show that soldiers eat at mealtime, and as Diane's data show, they drink at mealtime.
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PHYSICAL EATING SITUATION 339 is that they can stuff their pockets and snack when ever they want to, but in fact, that does not happen as often as one might expect. MARY MAYS: I saw something in Saudi Arabia that was very unusual.
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National Academy Press 18 Eating Situations' Food Appropriateness' and Consumption Howard G Schutz INTRODUCTION In considering the factors that contribute to the underconsumption of foods, it is instructive to look also at the reasons that people do consume food.
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