Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 22, 1995                   TAG: 9509220094
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL E. RUANE KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE MEALS ARE `READY TO EAT' - BUT SOLDIERS AREN'T HUNGRY

Pity the poor Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE).

The image of the military's standard field ration is dreadful: It's packed in heavy, trash-bag plastic. It has a shelf life of many years. It can be dropped out of airplanes. And it's made to survive chemical warfare.

Yummy.

And while it actually tastes better than it sounds, a new study suggests that the MRE's poor image and negative chow expectation may be contributing to potentially dangerous undereating by troops.

But the lowly MRE isn't the only suspect in the GIs' lack of appetite.

A National Academy of Sciences report released Thursday said other variables - the companions with whom soldiers eat, how much time they have to eat, ambience - can have negative effects on nutrition.

And, as Frederick the Great or Napoleon might have told them even without scientific research: Soldiers who don't eat well don't fight well.

The 483-page study, entitled ``Not Eating Enough,'' was conducted at the behest of the Army by a nutrition committee of the Academy's Institute of Medicine.

The committee was asked to examine why some troops did not eat well in the field, what the consequences were of such undereating and how that might be rectified.

``We found out that there was a consistent pattern of underconsumption, close to 1,000 calories a day,'' said Robert O. Neshiem, the committee chairman and a retired Quaker Oats executive. ``It's quite a bit. If you do that regularly you'll lose 2 pounds a week or more."

And foot soldiers, who are seldom overweight to begin with, often have scant weight to lose, said Gilbert A. Leveille, a Nabisco executive who was also on the committee.

``So whatever weight they lose is really muscle mass,'' he said. And when such ``people lose 10 percent of their initial weight they're really in pretty serious trouble.''