Eating enough food to meet nutritional needs and maintain good health and good performance in all aspects of life—both at home and on the job—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.

Table of Contents


Front Matter
I Committee Summary and Recommendations
1 Introduction and Background
2 Conclusions and Recommendations
II Background and Introduction to the Topic
3 Introduction to the Concepts and Issues: Underlying Underconsumption in Military Settings
4 Army Field Feeding System-Future
5 Commanders' Perceptions and Attitudes About Their Responsibilities for Feeding Soldiers
6 Nutritional Criteria for Development and Testing of Military Field Rations: An Historical Perspective
7 Evolution of Rations: The Pursuit of Universal Acceptance
8 An Overview of Dietary Intakes During Military Exercises
9 The Effects of Ration Modifications on Energy Intake, Body Weight Change
III Factors Underlying Food Intake and Underconsumption--Food
10 The Role of Image, Stereotypes, and Expectations on the Acceptance and Consumption of Rations
11 Effects of Food Quality, Quantity, and Variety on Intake
12 Effects of Beverage Consumption and Hydration Status on Caloric Intake
13 Industry Approaches to Food Research
IV Underconsumption and Performance
14 When Does Energy Deficit Affect Soldier Physical Performance?
15 Impact of Underconsumption on Cognitive Performance
16 The Functional Effects of Carbohydrate and Energy Underconsumption
V Factors Underlying Food Intake and Underconsumption--The Eating Situation and Social Issues
17 The Physical Eating Situation
18 Eating Situations, Food Appropriateness, and Consumption
19 From Biologic Rhythms to Chronomes Relevant to Nutrition
20 Social Facilitation and Inhibition of Eating
21 Lessons from Eating Disorders
22 A Plan to Overcome Ration Underconsumption
Appendixes
A Biographical Sketches
B Abbreviations
C Factors Related to Underconsumption --A Selected Bibliography
Index