Nutrient Composition of Rations for Short-Term, High-Intensity Combat Operations

463 Pages·2005·4.5 MB·English

by  High-stress Situations

NUTRIENT COMPOSITION
OF RATIONS FOR
SHORT-TERM, HIGH-INTENSITY
COMBAT OPERATIONS
Committee on Optimization of Nutrient Composition of Military Rations for
Short-Term, High-Stress Situations
Committee on Military Nutrition Research
Food and Nutrition Board
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
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COMMITTEE ON OPTIMIZATION OF NUTRIENT COMPOSITION
OF MILITARY RATIONS FOR
SHORT-TERM, HIGH-STRESS SITUATIONS
JOHN W. ERDMAN (Chair), Department of Food Science and Human
Nutrition, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
BRUCE R. BISTRIAN, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard
Medical School, Boston, MA
PRISCILLA M. CLARKSON, School of Public Health and Health Sciences,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
JOHANNA T. DWYER, Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of
Health, Washington, DC
BARBARA P. KLEIN, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
HELEN W. LANE, Johnson Space Center, National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, Houston, TX
MELINDA M. MANORE, Department of Nutrition, Oregon State University,
Corvallis
PATRICK M. O’NEIL, Weight Management Center, Institute of Psychiatry,
Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston
ROBERT M. RUSSELL, Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts
University, Boston, MA
BEVERLY J. TEPPER, Department of Food Sciences, Cook College of
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
KEVIN D. TIPTON, School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of
Birmingham, Birmingham, England
ALLISON A. YATES, Environ Health Sciences Institute, Arlington, VA
Staff
MARIA P. ORIA, Study Director
JON Q. SANDERS, Senior Program Assistant
LESLIE J. SIM, Research Associate
IOM boards do not review or approve individual reports and are not asked to endorse conclusions
and recommendations. The responsibility for the content of the reports rests with the authoring
committee and the institution.
v
FOOD AND NUTRITION BOARD
CATHERINEE.WOTEKI (Chair), College of Agriculture, Iowa State
University, Ames
ROBERTM.RUSSELL (Vice-Chair), Jean Mayer U.S. Department of
Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University,
Boston, MA
LARRYR.BEUCHAT, Center for Food Safety, University of Georgia, Griffin
MICHAEL P. DOYLE, Center for Food Safety, University of Georgia, Griffin
SUSANFERENC, Food Products Association, Washington, DC
NANCYF.KREBS, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Health
Sciences Center, Denver
SHIRIKIKUMANYIKA, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics,
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia
REYNALDOMARTORELL, Department of Global Health, Rollins School
of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
J.GLENNMORRIS,JR., Department of Epidemiology and Preventive
Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore
SUZANNEP.MURPHY, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of
Hawaii, Honolulu
JOSEM.ORDOVAS, Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human
Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, MA
LYNNPARKER, Child Nutrition Programs and Nutrition Policy, Food
Research and Action Center, Washington
NICHOLASJ.SCHORK, Department of Psychiatry, Polymorphism Research
Laboratory, University of California, San Diego
REBECCAJ.STOLTZFUS, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell
University, Ithaca, NY
JOHNW.SUTTIE, Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin,
Madison
WALTERC.WILLETT, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public
Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA
BARRYL.ZOUMAS, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural
Sociology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Staff
LINDAD.MEYERS, Director
GERALDINEKENNEDO, Administrative Assistant
ELIZABETHRIMAUD, Financial Associate
vi
Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their
diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures
approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The
purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments
that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible
and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evi-
dence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft
manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
E. Wayne Askew, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Barry Braun, Energy Metabolism Laboratory, University of Massachusetts,
Amherst
William J. Evans, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock
William C. Franke, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick
Marc K. Hellerstein, University of California, Berkeley
Janet R. Hunt, USDA-ARS Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research
Center, ND
Molly Kretsch, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD
Ron J. Maughan, School of Sport and Exercise Science, Loughborough
University, UK
Robert Nesheim, Salinas, CA
Michael D. Sitrin, Western New York Veterans Administration Medical
Center, Buffalo, NY
Douglas W. Wilmore, Ilauea, HI
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive com-
ments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recom-
vii
viii REVIEWERS
mendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The
review of this report was overseen by Richard N. Miller, M.D. Appointed by the
Institute of Medicine, he was responsible for making certain that an independent
examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional proce-
dures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility
for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and
the institution.
Preface
This report, titled Nutrient Composition of Rations for Short-Term, High-
Intensity Combat Operations, is the product of the work of the Committee on
Optimization of Nutrient Composition of Military Rations for Short-Term, High-
Stress Situations under the auspices of the Standing Committee on Military
Nutrition Research (CMNR). The CMNR was established in 1982 to advise the
US Department of Defense on the need for and conduct of nutrition research and
related issues. This report was produced in response to a request by the US Army
Medical Research and Materiel Command to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to
convene a committee to review and recommend the nutritional composition of
rations for short-term, high-stress situations. The specific questions posed to the
committee evolved from discussions between the standing CMNR and the Mili-
tary Nutrition Division of the US Army Research Institute of Environmental
Medicine (USARIEM) at Natick, Massachusetts.
A 12-member committee was formed that had expertise on micronutrients,
protein, energy balance and sports nutrition, gastroenterology, clinical medicine,
food processing and technology, eating behavior and intake regulation, clinical
nutrition, dietetics, and psychology. The committee’s task was to conduct a study
to determine the optimal nutrient content of a new combat ration. The committee
first discussed the limitations of the current rations for use during future military
deployments and combat operations and the expected impact of combat opera-
tions on nutrient status, health, and performance. Operating within specific design
constrains, the committee then recommended nutritional composition of a new
ration designed for short-term use by soldiers during high-tempo, stressful
combat missions. The nutritional composition of this new ration was optimized
to best sustain physical and cognitive performance and to prevent possible ad-
verse health consequences, despite limitations imposed by ration design and
mission constraints. The committee focused on dehydration, the gastrointestinal
gut processes, and the function of the immune system as health issues of highest
concern. Also, the committee considered the potential health and performance
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