Nutrient Composition Of Rations For Short Term High Intensity Combat Operations

Recognizing the importance of good nutrition for physical and mental status, the Department of Defense asked the Institute of Medicine to guide the design of the nutritional composition of a ration for soldiers on short-term, high-stress missions. Nutrient Composition of Rations for Short-Term, High-Intensity Combat Operations considers military performance, health concerns, food intake, energy expenditure, physical exercise, and food technology issues. The success of military operations depends to a large extent on the physical and mental status of the individuals involved. Appropriate nutrition during assault missions is a continuous challenge mainly due to diminished appetites of individuals under stress. Many less controllable and unpredictable factors, such as individual preferences and climate, come into play to reduce appetite. In fact, soldiers usually consume about half of the calories needed, leaving them in a state called "negative energy balance." The consequences of being in negative energy balance while under these circumstances range from weight loss to fatigue to mental impairments. An individual's physiological and nutritional status can markedly affect one's ability to maximize performance during missions and may compromise effectiveness. With the number of these missions increasing, the optimization of rations has become a high priority.

Written by a team from the U.S. Army's Combat Feeding Directorate at the Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center, this technical volume represents a comprehensive guide to how the military designs, processes, customizes, packages and distributes highly palatable, long shelf-life food products for field personnel. The book offers new data on numerous technologies used to solve problems such as nutrient densification, lightweighting, novel thermal processing, and long-term quality preservation in delivering appetizing foods and more. Testing techniques are explained for evaluating sensory qualities of foods and their effects on physical and cognitive performance.

This book highlights the entire family of fielded combat rations. Rations are categorized into one of four platforms: Individual Rations, Assault Rations, Group Rations, and Special Purpose Rations. Each ration is described by its purpose, major characteristics, nutritional data, and preparation requirements. The mission of the DoD Combat Feeding Program is to ensure that America's Warfighters are the best fed in the world. By investing in high risk/high payoff science and technology, and utilizing Continuous Product Improvement (CPI), CFD provides Warfighters with revolutionary combat feeding capabilities. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS * QUICK REFERENCE DATA * INTRODUCTION * HISTORY OF COMBAT FEEDING * CONTINUOUS PRODUCT IMPROVEMENT * NUTRITION * INDIVIDUAL RATIONS: * Meal, Ready-to-Eat, Individual (MRE) * ASSAULT RATIONS: * First Strike Ration (FSR) * Meal, Cold Weather/Food Packet, Long Range Patrol (MCW/LRP) * Modular Operational Ration Enhancement (MORE) * GROUP RATIONS: * Unitized Group Ration (UGR) * UGR-Heat and Serve (H&S) * UGR-A Ration * UGR-B Ration * UGR-Express (UGR-E) * Navy Standard Core Menu (NSCM) * SPECIAL PURPOSE RATIONS: * Meal, Religious, Kosher/Halal * Meal, Religious, Kosher for Passover * Meal, Tailored Operational Training (TOTM) * Go-To-War (GTW) Ration * Food Packet, Survival, General Purpose * Food Packet, Survival, Abandon Ship * Food Packet, Survival, Aircraft, Life Raft * Humanitarian Daily Ration (HDR) * Meal, Alternative Regionally Customized (MARC) * Tube Foods * Ultra High Temperature (UHT) Milk * FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS * CONTACT INFORMATION The mission of the Department of Defense (DoD) Combat Feeding Program is to sustain the Department of Defense's most decisive weapons platform - the individual Warfighter. The contemporary operating environment requires state-of-the-art combat rations to provide for the nutritional needs of the Warfighter in a wide variety of situations, from peacekeeping to high-intensity combat and contingency operations. Under the auspices of the DoD, the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) DoD Combat Feeding Directorate (CFD) and Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) - Troop Support employ a total life cycle approach in developing, testing, evaluating, procuring, fielding, and supporting all military rations. These rations are a vital contribution to the overall quality of life of the individual combatant.

The activities of the Food and Nutrition Board's Committee on Military Nutrition Research (CMNR, the committee) have been supported since 1994 by grant DAMD17-94-J-4046 from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC). This report fulfills the final reporting requirement of the grant, and presents a summary of activities for the grant period from December 1, 1994 through May 31, 1999. During this grant period, the CMNR has met from three to six times each year in response to issues that are brought to the committee through the Military Nutrition and Biochemistry Division of the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine at Natick, Massachusetts, and the Military Operational Medicine Program of USAMRMC at Fort Detrick, Maryland. The CMNR has submitted five workshop reports (plus two preliminary reports), including one that is a joint project with the Subcommittee on Body Composition, Nutrition, and Health of Military Women; three letter reports, and one brief report, all with recommendations, to the Commander, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, since September 1995 and has a brief report currently in preparation. These reports are summarized in the following activity report with synopses of additional topics for which reports were deferred pending completion of military research in progress. This activity report includes as appendixes the conclusions and recommendations from the nine reports and has been prepared in a fashion to allow rapid access to committee recommendations on the topics covered over the time period.

It is a commonly held belief that athletes, particularly body builders, have greater requirements for dietary protein than sedentary individuals. However, the evidence in support of this contention is controversial. This book is the latest in a series of publications designed to inform both civilian and military scientists and personnel about issues related to nutrition and military service. Among the many other stressors they experience, soldiers face unique nutritional demands during combat. Of particular concern is the role that dietary protein might play in controlling muscle mass and strength, response to injury and infection, and cognitive performance. The first part of the book contains the committee's summary of the workshop, responses to the Army's questions, conclusions, and recommendations. The remainder of the book contains papers contributed by speakers at the workshop on such topics as, the effects of aging and hormones on regulation of muscle mass and function, alterations in protein metabolism due to the stress of injury or infection, the role of individual amino acids, the components of proteins, as neurotransmitters, hormones, and modulators of various physiological processes, and the efficacy and safety considerations associated with dietary supplements aimed at enhancing performance.

This book reviews the research pertaining to nutrient requirements for working in cold or in high-altitude environments and states recommendations regarding the application of this information to military operational rations. It addresses whether, aside from increased energy demands, cold or high-altitude environments elicit an increased demand or requirement for specific nutrients, and whether performance in cold or high-altitude environments can be enhanced by the provision of increased amounts of specific nutrients.

Eating enough food to meet nutritional needs and maintain good health and good performance in all aspects of lifeâ€"both at home and on the jobâ€"is important for all of us throughout our lives. For military personnel, however, this presents a special challenge. Although soldiers typically have a number of options for eating when stationed on a base, in the field during missions their meals come in the form of operational rations. Unfortunately, military personnel in training and field operations often do not eat their rations in the amounts needed to ensure that they meet their energy and nutrient requirements and consequently lose weight and potentially risk loss of effectiveness both in physical and cognitive performance. This book contains 20 chapters by military and nonmilitary scientists from such fields as food science, food marketing and engineering, nutrition, physiology, psychology, and various medical specialties. Although described within a context of military tasks, the committee's conclusions and recommendations have wide-reaching implications for people who find that job-related stress changes their eating habits.