Posted on 12/31/2015 4:08:46 PM PST by BenLurkin
The U.S. Army Institute of Environmental Medicine is looking for volunteers (PDF) to eat military food rations for 21 consecutive days for a study of the impact of Meals, Ready-to-Eat, or MREs, on gut health. Researchers want to learn how MREs influence the millions of bacteria in troops' digestive systems.
"Interactions between the millions of bacteria living in our gut and what we eat is a very important factor in gut health, but we don't know how MRE foods interact with those bacteria to impact gut health," Holly McClung, a research dietitian working on the project, said on the Army's website. "Ultimately, discovering how eating MREs influences gut bacteria and gut health will help our efforts to continually improve the MRE."
Much like on the battlefield, one of the main obstacles in the study is finding people to commit to a steady diet of ready-to-eat meals. MREs are generally regarded as tasteless, if not bad, which is perhaps understandable considering the wide battery of requirements they must meet to guarantee shelf life and meet strict nutritional benchmarks.
MREs must be capable of withstanding parachute drops from 1,250 feet, and the packaging is required to maintain a minimum shelf life of 3.5 years at 80 degrees Fahrenheit or nine months at 100 degrees.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I liked ham & lima beans, as well as the eggs & pork and beans.
I liked ham & lima beans, as well as the eggs & pork and beans.
The worst part was the rumbling in the lower bowel before squirting, nothing solid.
You qualify to be president!
How many Preppers rotate MRE’s into their daily diet to keep their stock rotated?
They’re a great inventory due to their versatility. Great for short duration emergencies like flooding, snowbound. Great for your scout pack. Tiresome as home base food but very tradable, too heavy for a serious GTFO bag though.
Traded into a few awhile back, not that bad, fun to take to work for lunch. Worst part is depackaging the items. A single flat square of 4 soda crackers, sealed in plastic. Remember when crackers came like that instead of sleeves and you’d have to snap them apart? Crumbs flyin’ all over hell...
Gross... I'd trade that for a Beefsteak.
I’ve got one Battery Commander and a couple of Battalion Commanders I’d like to volunteer ...
I ran into a guy at a gun show in the early 90s who practically gave them away. He let me have 12 cases of 12 for only $32. I remember thinking he must have gotten them for free after a recent hurricane.
Anyway we went out to his pickup and I got the 12 cases. He must have had another 50.
They turned out to be pretty good tho there were a few I didn’t care for. I remember there was a cheese spread in maybe a quarter of the meals which I thought was great with the crackers.
Now I can see how they would not be good for everyday but eating maybe one a week, I liked them.
I did end up with a bunch of book matches and unused heaters.
Sheriff Joe already deals with 8th Amendment claims so he might not be interested in another.
Just NOW they are getting around to the impact that MRE preparations have on the digestive capabilities of soldiers?
World War One, they were cooking and eating the rats that infested the trenches.
I hesitate to think of what medieval knights may have been reduced to seek for food supplies on a landscape devastated by several days of violent clashes.
I’m not sure about that but I do know what eating C rats for three months in a row is like.
21 straight days!? You would be constipated and about ready to kill someone.
You had better be working out like a demon too. Those things are calorie loaded!
I still have the hots for Bailey.
Do similar study on Mooschelle’s school lunches.
Hubby is a retired firefighter. He’d go into the middle of nowhere fighting fires so carried mre’s. He’d always bring them home to the kid when he finally made it home. She’d eat the m&m’s. Lol
Wouldn’t the gut bacteria in the field be determined more by the poor sanitary conditions experienced there than the food itself?
Well yeah ....... cheese pack locks ya up for 72 hours and ya eat yer John Wayne bars when ya get back inside the wire .....:o)
Been there done that too. Gave me some appreciation for the birthing process.
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