Military Labs Develop Caffeinated Jerky and "Zapplesauce" 151
A military research facility outside Boston has come up two new super foods for MREs (Meal, Ready to Eat). Soon soldiers will able to stay awake during guard duty thanks to caffeinated meat sticks. They'll have the energy for extended patrols from a "super-charged" applesauce. From the article: "'There is a lot of science that goes into this,' said David Accetta, a spokesman for the Natick Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center, where every item put into an MRE is tested and tasted. 'And that’s what a lot of people don’t realize. It’s not just a bunch of cooks in the kitchen making up recipes.'”
Re:Food industri selling drugs (Score:4, Interesting)
A ./ article about MREs and the first post is criticizes our food system. These are not designed for civilians these are military field rations. Honestly it's pretty neat.
That seems like a poor choice... (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps more importantly, caffeine is actually a mediocre alertness aid. In sufficient quantity it will prevent you from sleeping; but the jittery, dubiously-lucid, feeling that it provides isn't exactly "wakefulness". Not really a win for clear thinking or straight shooting. It seems like some exploration of Modafinil, or related drugs, if any, would be more productive.
That stuff isn't nearly as readily available in already common, light, nonperishable forms, and when it prevents you from sleeping you just don't feel sleepy. The effect is uncanny.
Re:Cornholio (Score:5, Interesting)
As an aside, if you ever go to Korea (not Best Korea, the other one) the locals will trade you a bottle of Soju (rotgut liquor) for the main meal in your MRE.
How much have MREs improved? (Score:5, Interesting)
I was in one of the first training platoons in the Army which received the "newfangled" MREs instead of C-Rations. Although they were colloquially called "Meals Ready to Excrete" by the "early adopters" of such a technology of cuisine, it felt like they traveled at Mach 2 through the digestive system until the last "quarter mile" of the intestinal tunnel. Then they seemingly sat there for days.
Much of the above activity was due to the famously known "Dehydrated Beef Patty" and "Dehydrated Pork Patty." No matter how much water you added to them, they went down like shredded corrugated cardboard, exhibiting the same gustatory and gastronomical effects.
Re:MRE (Score:5, Interesting)
I think it's a bit like the uncanny valley. MREs are close enough to regular food that you focus on the differences between them and freshly prepared food. They really aren't bad for something that can be eaten after sitting on the shelf unrefrigerated for years, being exposed to temperatures ranging from -60F to +120F, then dropped 100 feet.
The old C-rations left no doubt as to what they were about. It was quite obvious the only reason anyone would willingly consume a C-ration was that the alternative was death by starvation. It also weighed 5.5 lb, as opposed to 1lb 2oz - 1lb 10oz for a modern MRE. K rations were so bad that even the prospect of starvation wasn't enough. Men in one unit lost an average of 35 pounds living on them and contracted pellagra and beriberi. According to one report, soldiers who'd been forced to survive on K-rations would vomit at the mere sight of a K ration box afterwards.
No prepackaged meals have ever been as good as even mediocre fresh cooking. Yet people still buy frozen dinners and freeze-dried camping food. MREs seem to be in the same range as that stuff. You wouldn't want to live on them, but they sure beat starvation.
Re:Food industri selling drugs (Score:3, Interesting)
They airdrop them into third-world areas as a "humanitarian" gesture. Only then they call them an "HDR" ("Humanitarian Daily Ration.")
Wrapped in yellow plastic dangerously similar to the yellow plastic around unexploded cluster bomb munitions, approximately the same size/shape too.
Just to confuse the fuck out of the poor people who don't know if they're about to get a meal or their hand blown off... [commondreams.org]