Not Eating Enough Overcoming Underconsumption of Military Operational Rations (1995) / Chapter Skim
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6 Nutritional Criteria for Development and Testing of Military Field Rations: An Historical Perspective
6 Nutritional Criteria for Development and Testing of Military Field Rations: An Historical Perspective
Pages 91-108
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From page 91... ...
National Academy Press 6 Nutritional Criteria for Development en cl Testing of Military Field Rations: An Historical Perspective David D Schnakenberg~ INTRODUCTION Nutritional standards for the development and procurement of military rations and Military Recommended Dietary Allowances (MRDAs)
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From page 92... ...
The CMNR also provided advisory input into the development of the nutritional criteria as well as into the assessment and interpretation of the nutritional data from several of these important field ration trials. Nutritional and other biomedical data were specifically requested and subsequently used by general officers on the Army staff to make decisions during 1986-1988 that improved not only nutritional quality and food consumption, but also troop acceptability of the Meal, Readyto-Eat (MRE)
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From page 93... ...
was organized in 1940 in conjunction with the defense program. During World War II, the Army Surgeon General's office usually accepted diets as nutritionally adequate if they met the recommended dietary allowances of the FNB published in January 1943 and June 1945 (NRC, 1941, 1945~.
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From page 94... ...
The MRDAs were defined as the "daily essential nutrient intake levels" presently considered to meet the known nutritional needs of practically all 17- to 50-year-old, moderately active military personnel." The MRDAs were intended for use by professional personnel involved in menu planning, dietary evaluation on a population basis, nutrition education, nutrition research, and food research development. The MRDAs were expanded to include safe and adequate adult dietary intake ranges for selected nutrients, known to be essential, but for which recommended levels of intake had not been established.
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From page 95... ...
80 800 5-10 8 60 1.2 1.4 16 2.0 400 3.0 800-1200 800-1200 300 18 15 150 See note'° I MRDA for moderately active military personnel, ages 17 to 50 years, are based on the Recomme~7cle<1 l~iewry A/lowa~7cc.s, ninth revised edition, 1980. 2 Energy allowance ranges are estimated to reflect the requirements of 70 percent of the moderately active military population.
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From page 96... ...
96 oo 1 a~ _' ._ ._ ~o.
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From page 97... ...
Restricted rations2 4 1 100-1500 50-70 1 00-200 50-70 500 s 30 .0 1.2 13 1.2 200 1.5 400 400 400 9 7.5 NUTRITIONAL CRITERIA FOR TESTING MILITARY RATIONS The MRDAs for military personnel and the nutritional standards for operational and restricted rations were the primary references used to develop the nutritional criteria that were used during an extensive series of field ration feeding trials conducted during the 1980s. Examples will be provided from the following four major ration tests:
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From page 98... ...
ration, although formulated to be nutritionally adequate, should not be used as sole source of food for periods in excess of 10 consecutive days." The rationale given was that the ration will become monotonous, troop acceptance and nutrient intakes will decrease, morale will deteriorate, and as a consequence, troop performance and health may be adversely affected. No one in the OTSG at that time apparently was willing to approve a change in policy for a ration that had not been adequately tested or even produced.
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From page 99... ...
version of the MRDAs should be used as nutritional criteria for the 1983 MRE test, it was not clear what interpretation should be made if average daily energy intakes fell below the energy MRDA of 3,200 kcal/d. It was agreed that data on body weight change should also be assessed, but there was no existing body weight change criterion established for use in field ration testing.
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From page 100... ...
, and intakes continued to decline as the test progressed despite an average body weight loss that exceeded 5 percent. The OTSG reviewed the data and concluded that there was no evidence from this trial to support revision of the existing 10-d restriction on the use of individual rations such as the MRE as the sole source of food.
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From page 101... ...
Army Combat Developments Experimentation Center (USACDEC) , USARIEM conducted the largest and most extensive field ration trial ever, involving over 1,600 troops from the Twenty-fifth Infantry Division at the Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii, during August to September 1985.
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From page 102... ...
102 ._ o 4_ V, ~ E~ r~ C~ oo _ :, Cd .o .= ~ a, ._ ;^ a, CC o ._ ._ z ~i ~ I _ 1 , ' ~ ~_, ~ ~ 5 -~ ~ a ~ `,, c 3 -C c c c ~0 u 0 .c 0 c O c E G c,, 5 _ D O D O - ' 8 ~ .
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From page 103... ...
stimulation (%) Riboflavin red blood cell glutathione Reductase FAD: effect (activity coefficient)
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From page 104... ...
The CMNR's comments and recommendations were included in their 1986 Annual Report (NRC, 1986~. 1986 MORE Improvement Test Hawaii The next major field trial was the 1986 MRE Improvement Test, an 1 1-d field test conducted by USANRDEC and USARIEM to evaluate the effectiveness of MRE improvements to correct previously identified problems with inadequate consumption, excessive body weight loss, and possible dehydration.
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From page 105... ...
Fluid intakes and urine specific gravities returned to normal as soon as the water resupply problem was resolved. RECOMMENDATIONS This author's experiences during the past 10 to 12 years of direct involvement in establishing nutritional criteria for field testing of operational rations have led to the following recommendations: Nutritional standards for operational and restricted rations are appropriate nutritional criteria for development and procurement of military rations.
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From page 106... ...
A new or major modification to an existing ration or feeding system should not to be implemented until it has been adequately tested in direct comparison with the old ration or system with troops during realistic field training maneuvers. · Field ration trials should also be conducted under extreme environmental conditions.
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From page 107... ...
"Nutritional Standards." Washington, D.C. 1985 Army Regulation 40-25/Naval Command Medical Instruction 10110.1/Air Force Regulation 160-95.
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From page 108... ...
Frederick the Great of Prussia is credited with having defined an army as a group of men who demand daily feeding (Frederick II, 19663. Military rations are no less important today, and, in fact, the importance of sound nutrition to the performance of modern, hightechnology military personnel may be even more critical than in the past.
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