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 ...
You’re right. They are super cheap. Actually one way I like them is substituting Chinese hot chili paste instead of the flavor packet. Sort of a poor man’s Hunan style noodle.
yep, been there, done that.
That just proves you are a man.
If you’re not in ‘survival’ mode, throw a few shrimp in, or a little diced, cooked chicken.
(I learned to be creative with Ramen from a Korean friend.)
-JT
MRE’s. Meals resistant to evacuation.
No ham and mofos?
“Itâs not just a job, is $89.50 a month.”
Port of Call Bayonne, NJ !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhioeOeOHsA
When I was younger a friend in the Marines would occasionally give me MREs. My friends and I would take them camping, and when my Marine friend found out we were eating three per day he pointed out each one was to last a day - not a meal.
You betcha!
As I understand it, you would be constipated for a couple of days then the floodgates would open. Constipating someone for longer would probably cause internal injuries...
DAY-YUM, that made me involuntarily guffaw!
The “Ham Slice” was decent and needed no heating. Some of them were pretty nasty cold. And most included the “John Wayne Bar” - a piece of chocolate which resulted in your dumping a turd so big that John Wayne would be proud to claim it!
We held a competition once to see who could create one coiled up like a rattlesnake. I finished third...couldn’t get the twist quite right.
But are they halal?
Some people must be exaggerating the digestive problems caused by MREs. As I mentioned I once purchased a total of 144 complete MREs for a pittance. I was thinking that I probably ate one a week but it must have been more than that as I don’t think they lasted more than a year as that is the amount of time before I took a job which included all meals.
I never recall that I had any problems with them at all. Some were not that good but some were very good.
Major constipation.
Why don’t they just go up to the Portsmouth Naval Penitentiary and look for volnteers. Ofter prisoners time off the senrence for participating.
Meals Refusing to Exit?
Been there, done that, don’t fit into the T-shirt anymore.
You got something against Natick?
When I was on a USFS fire suppression crew in the mid 60s, we carried 2 days worth of C rats in our fire packs. These were all dated from the early 50s.
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