Military to Civilian Diet

Nutrition in the Military? That’s something that you wouldn't really think of first when you hear the word “military”. I’m pretty sure the first things that come to mind are freedom, guns, and camo which are very far from Nutrition. Being in the Marine Officer Program at Texas Tech is an extrodenary opportunity and coming from a non military background makes the program very eye opening to a whole other world. So the other day a couple people in the program when on a 6 mile 30lbs ruck hike at Ransom Canyon, needless to say it was tough, but on the plus side they fed us some MREs. An MRE is a Meal Ready-To-Eat which is basically a prepackaged meal so those serving don't have to spend a lot of time preparing food. The perception of these MREs is that they are majorly a ton of calories and they taste disgusting, but the truth is that they actually do have a lot of calories, about 1,250 calories worth of food and they taste … wait for it … good! A simply break down of the calories are an average 13 percent protein, 36 percent fat, 51 percent carbs, and about one third of the military recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals. I had a Beef shredded in BBQ Sauce MRE which had black beans in a seasoned sauce, filled pretzels with jalapeño cheese stuffing, tortillas, nuts, a spoon, and a flameless ration heater.  Everything seems pretty self explanatory, but I myself need some explanation on how the flameless ration heater works. Basically it’s all a chemical reaction once you pour some watering the bottom of the bag then dump in your main meal, wait a couple of minutes, then out comes steam and it’s hot and ready to eat. Needless to say it was a lot of food! I was stuffed and didn't even eat half. I was in so much shock because it looked disgusting.

Active duty service men and women that live the soldier life can choose from up to 24 entrees and a typical day consists of 3 MREs. When I first heard this info I was in even more shock because I could barley finish one and these amazing active duty men and women eat at least 3 a day. It makes so much sense that they could eat this much with the amount of excessive physical activity they endure. The point of this blog is to explain how the transition between a military diet can be tough. On average a non service man should eat 2500 calories and a women should eat on average 2000 calories, but any military personnel eats a whopping 1750 calories more. The transition can be tough because when you're going from so many calories and a highly active daily lifestyle then go to a completely different diet while staying at a high active lifestyle, you’re body will react since it’s not use to not eating something that isn't an MRE.