PERFORMANCE READINESS AND GO TO WAR ON JUNK FOOD?!

If I had a dime for how many times I rolled my eyes at yet another insanely shoot yourself in the foot move that the Army makes, I would be a millionaire.

The Army straight up brags about the progressive ways they are helping their troops eat well, but they keep cranking out the same CARBAGE with just a cool new name. I’m guessing the E-4 in the marketing department is tapped to come up with these names (eye roll).

Sound bitter? Yes, I am. Sound angry. Hell yea. It continues to boggle my mind that the Army is oh, let’s see about 2 decades behind in nutritional interventions for their troops that are more unfit, fatter, and sicker than they have ever been in history. Let’s look at a few examples, shall we?

Exhibit A: Go to War Ration Numbers 2 and 3 and the Army Performance Readiness Bar

Looks like a pile of carbage to me. The Go to War Rations is designed to supplement the normal meals that the troops get while deployed or out in the field for training exercises. Designed to help add calories (because that is exactly what they need begin a majority overweight) and create a sense of “we love you, thanks for serving our country, hope you feel warm and fuzzy when you eat this and forget the suck circumstances you are in for a few minutes”. Now, that is not an exact quote from the Army website, but basically that is the premise. To provide foods to make the troops feel good. Sure, a pile of carbs and sugar will do that. Because research shows that the sugar response in the brain is similar to the brain response to narcotics. What a precedent this sets! Teach troops that whenever you are feeling bummed out, just grab some carbs and sugar and you will feel all better.

Not only that, but let’s set up our troops for the worst-case scenario, having bodies with out of control blood sugar and complete reliance on the continued refeeding of sugar for energy instead of training the body to become fat-adapted (where the body better stores and taps into saved blood sugar and uses body fat for energy, thus controlling blood sugars and not being dependent on constant glucose refeeding for energy). So, if troops get stuck behind the wire for a few hours and are in a heavy firefight with the enemy, what the hell? A sugar crash happens, no food available. What happens when your blood sugar crashes? You have no energy, you become unfocused, confused, brain fog, sleepy, irritable, your reaction time lowers, you are now prone to mood swings and compulsive behaviors, exactly the state of mind you need to be in when engaging the enemy (hear the dripping sarcasm?).

Let’s now turn to the epidemic of nutritional deficiencies in Americans. The CDC recently came out with a report that stated that most Americans are deficient in about 6 different nutrients: Amino Acids (found in proteins), Omega 3 fatty acids (fat), B complex vitamins especially B-12, Vitamin D, folate, the minerals, magnesium, calcium, chromium, iodine, iron, lithium, selenium, and zinc.

Now, Vitamin D deficiency has been getting a lot of attention in the past few years and especially with COVID, because the fact is that your Vitamin D levels are directly correlated with your survival chances if you contract COVID. The Army’s way of addressing this deficiency? Give the troops a daily supplement…in the form of a high sugar candy bar! Meet The Performance Readiness Bar (cool name, huh).

So, in reading nutritional labels 101, we learn that the first ingredient listed on an ingredients list is what the food item is mostly comprised of. In other words, this food is MOSTLY this. Read the 1st ingredient. Corn syrup, a super-concentrated, highly addictive form of sugar. Read the next ingredient. “Fat Replacer” (p.s. WTF!?) which is basically, fruit. Ok, what? So, instead of putting a healthy fat in the bar, which most Americans are deficient in (see CDC list above we just listed), you “replace” it with…sugar, which, no American is deficient in. Next 3 ingredients, crispy rice cereal (carbs), brown rice crisps (carbs), and fructose (yeat another highly concentrated, addictive form of sugar). Ok, wait. Wasn’t the point of this bar to supplement the Vitamin D and Calcium deficiencies in troops?! Finally, in the last few ingredients, we reach calcium carbonate and vitamin D, mixed in with 3 more forms of sugar, maltodextrin, glycerin, and dextrose. So, a bar that was made to add calcium and vitamin D, but came with 10 forms of carbs and sugar. How about just having them drink a glass of whole milk (or lactose-removed whole milk for those who are lactose intolerant)?

Do you now feel the INSANITY?

The most recent attempts were the announcement of a pilot study in chow halls introducing vegetarian and vegan dishes. I applaud the attempt to get troops to eat more veggies, but why go to such an extreme? Basically, plants are carbs. So, you want to encourage them to eat only carbs? Why is the Army so far behind the curveball in reading actual recent legitimate nutritional research and find out what they already know, that the best diet for humans is some form of ancestral diet (depending on where you live, depends on what this looks like)? But what they all have in common is that NONE OF THEM contain high fructose corn syrup or ANY processed foods. Real, whole foods. Meats, fish, dairy, veggies, fruits, and in some regions, rice and some grains. That is it. It’s not rocket science. Stuff that grew or walked on the land or swam in an ocean, lake, or river. Food that had a life. Food that hasn’t been chemically altered and processed to the point that it doesn’t even chemically resemble food anymore. Why are we not doing this?! Because we can’t give it a cool name? I think an Ancestor Diet sounds pretty cool. Hey, it worked for them for thousands of years and it helped them survive and evolve as a species. The stuff we are eating today is cutting our lives short, creating diseases that never existed in our ancestors, and is responsible for the number 1 cause of death around the world (heart disease).

I beg of you Army, stop the insanity. Get read up on the latest nutritional research. Fire everyone and start fresh with those who know a thing or two about curing modern human diseases with food.