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Military Labs Develop Caffeinated Jerky and "Zapplesauce"
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.'”
“I’m never gonna get used to the 31st century. Caffeinated bacon? Baconated grapefruit? ADMIRAL Crunch?”
Fry, Futurama
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.
My local store has caffeinated jerky, and has for awhile.
Actually getting "hopped up on sugar" is a myth.
People don't get more hyper-active after eating sugar- or if they do, it is not because of the sugar per-se than the stimulating environment that often surrounds times we eat sugar. Kids at b'day party get hyper because it is a b'day party- not because they ate cake.
Most people (kids included) who don't have insulin-related problems don't undergo any kind of wild mood swings due to eating sugary foods.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Dear Private Void,
Eating an MRE has more of the effect of putting a solid brick in your bowels than getting you "hopped" up. The only raw sugar I encountered eating all the hundreds of MREs I've reluctantly consumed in my 7+ years active duty Marine Corps was the sugar packets that came with the instant coffee packets. There's also a candy of some sort, my favorite being a bag of M&Ms stating they are proud sponsors of the 1984 Olympics (this was in 1996). Anything new, tasty, and FSM forbid, energizing would be welcome.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
The shocking thing is that there was apparently someone somewhere who thought a cook was involved in preparing MREs. This person, like Tom Lehrer's mess sergeant, probably has his tastebuds shot off in the war...
That said, the desserts aren't too bad, although mainly because they are 90% sugar...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
whoooooosh
Caffeine is an awesome drug. So long as your job doesn't ever consist of accurately firing a weapon or going long durations without peeing.
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
How about the "Beverage Base Powder"? That's 90+% sugar (Kool-aid (tm) by any other name, I'd bet).
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
I'm surprised that they'd be using caffeine: 1. It's already dirt cheap and readily available in a wide variety of convenient forms. Coffee(with varying tradeoffs between goodness and portability), tea(ditto), water, pills, assorted energy-shot things, etc, etc. It's a readily water-soluble alkaloid stimulant. Not hard to work with.
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.
OK, so instead of cold, tired, scared recruits with overpowered assault rifles standing guard in the dark of night we're going to have jittery, cold, tired, scared recruits with overpowered assault rifles standing guard in the dark of night. Lovely.
As a former Marine myself (8 years active duty), I can attest that Oodaloop is right on the money. We used to call them Meals Rarely Excreted.
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.
Don't believe anything I say. I crash test crack pipes for a living.
Did you eat them...?
(a) ...Out of curiosity ...Out of self defense (lest they eat you first) ...Because you wanted to
(b)
(c)
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
I used to love the BBQ pork and rice, Ham slice and the Corned Beef Hash MREs. One was smart to save their Tobasco sauce from the good packs to use when you got stuck with something like.... Omlete pack number 1......
USMC 1990-1994
--- If the bible proves the existence of God, then Superman comics prove the existence of Superman.
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.
And and here I always thought it stood for Meals Rejected by Ethiopians.
I needed a sig so people would know who I am, but I was too drunk to make something witty, so you get this instead.
And when it does not works, we gave them good'ol amphetamine sulphate! http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/17/1042520778665.html
Jehovah be praised, Oracle was not selected
hahaha you do things you normally wouldn't when you are sleep deprived, hungry and bored.
During OIF I, I made the grievous error of saying that #4, Country Captain Chicken, wasn't that terrible. After a few days of my coworkers selflessly saving the #4 for me while they got first pick on a new box, I quickly recanted.
Godwin's Law simply says that the longer an internet discussion gets, the more likely a Nazi reference becomes.
It's also about giving your military personnel stimulants, so this Godwin seems on-topic.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
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.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
MREs aren't all that bad if you can heat the entree. If not, they're not much fun.
Go for the chicken-based entrees. "Pasta with Vegetables in Tomato Sauce" (discontinued in 2006), not so good. There are 24 different MREs in each year, and each case contains a semi-random selection. They're reliable survival food. Everyone should have a case or two around, just in case.
The packaging is very tough. They can be dropped from an aircraft without a parachute, and at least 80% of the units should survive.
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...
Which explains the behavior of both military during operations and programmers during crunch time.
the MRE's of today aren't the same ones they made in 1996.
In fact there have been quite a few major differences. anyone who's last MRE was pre 2001 really shouldn't talk about it until they have tried the ones made since.
That said, they are still going to sit like a lump of coal in your stomach.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
I have had the new ones. I got out in 2003, and have gone downrange since then as well. They are better that what they used to be. Still not exactly high cuisine.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.