U.S. Army Wants to Learn How Military Rations Affect Gut Health
Meals, Ready-to-Eat, also known as MREs. (Photo: Rian Castillo/Flickr)
Digestive health is really getting its place in the spotlight these days, with new findings constantly being released on the importance of the bacteria in our guts and how that bacteria impacts other bodily functions and organs (even our brains!). And it’s no secret that what you eat has a profound impact on the kinds, and health, of bacteria living in the gut.
That’s why the U.S. Army Institute of Environmental Medicine is investigating how military food rations called MREs, or “Meals, Ready-to-Eat,” affect gut health — and are recruiting volunteers for a 21-day study.
In the study, participants (who must be between ages 18 and 62, and will receive $200 in compensation) will either eat their own normal diet for 31 days, or eat nothing but MREs for 21 days. Over the study period, participants will also have to give blood, urine, and fecal samples.
MREs originated during World War II, and includes an entree (like spaghetti or beef stew), a side dish (like mashed potatoes or corn), crackers or bread, some kind of spread (like peanut butter or a cheese spread), dessert (like cookies), candy (like M&Ms) a drink (like coffee or tea or sports-drink-like mixes), and utensils and a flameless ration heater, according to the U.S. Army. Each MRE is meant to provide 1,250 calories, on average, as well as one-third of the Military Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamins and minerals.
CNN reports that Army dietitians have even devised a cookbook that utilizes MRE foods. According to CNN:
Mountaineer mousse dip is made up of a pudding pouch, a dairy shake and water mixed to a mousse-type consistency. … Dip pretzels in it, and you might have something approximating the sweet and savory experience of salted caramel gelato.
“We want to benefit the warfighter in as many ways nutritionally and physiologically as possible,” research dietitian Adrienne Hatch told Fox 59. “We hope that the ideas offered in this book help entice Soldiers to eat the foods needed to sustain health and energy in the field and ultimately benefit them as they carry out their missions.”
For more information about the study, visit the Army’s notice about the recruitment for the study here.
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