thedrifter
07-12-07, 08:26 AM
Inside US Green Zone in Iraq, Marines’ fight is against bulge
LA Times-Washington Post
Posted online: Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST
Baghdad, July 11
When Spc Matthew Curll left basic training for Iraq nearly a year ago, he traded a bland diet for burgers, pie and Fudgsicles.
“You go from a lot of crappy stuff at the mess hall to a loaded table on Sundays,” said Curll (21), of Massachusetts, over a dinner of baked chicken followed by ice cream in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all,” added Spc Joe Reen (23), also from Mass., finishing a turkey wrap and green salad. “You wanted to try everything.”
The two indulged at first, but said they learned to resist most of the fried food and extra desserts that dominate the menu at US dining facilities in Iraq. Others are not so careful, they said, including a few officers ahead of them in the chow line. “There were three colonels in front of me who got double scoops and extra toppings,” Reen said.
The Army has loaded the menu at the 70 chow halls, run by contractor KBR, with a buffet of fattening fare, from cheese steaks to tacos and Rocky Road ice cream. Many soldiers gain more than 15 pounds on a deployment, military dietitians say. They are also seeing soldiers return from Iraq with higher cholesterol, mostly due to their eating habits.
Soldiers are just as susceptible to overeating and packing on the pounds as anyone else, said Donald Williamson, a professor of nutrition at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
“Iraq presents some added challenges people don’t face here—sitting around a lot, then going from boring to distressing in a matter of minutes,” he said.
In Iraq, it’s up to a handful of military dietitians to steer the troops away from that second piece of pie a la mode and to the salad bars. Most recognise the hold food has in a place where a taste of home brings comfort.
But how many calories does the average soldier need? Most meals ready to eat, contain about 1,300 calories; three a day are recommended. Supplemented with energy bars and drinks, they give soldiers the 4,500 to 5,000 calories they need for an active day of patrols or on the front line. But many of the 400,000 meals served daily at chow halls in Iraq are consumed by soldiers who spend most of their time on base or at desk jobs.
And dietary misconceptions abound. Some soldiers load up on high-calorie meat to avoid perceived protein deficiencies. They guzzle sugary sodas, energy drinks and fruit juice to avoid dehydration when they’re better off with water.
A sample meal of fried chicken, two cheese sandwiches, chili, cheesecake, Gatorade and orange soda racked up 2,395 calories. A more conservative meal of fried chicken, brown rice, peas and diet soda was only 716 calories, but still above the 500-calorie plate Stankorb recommends for those trying to lose or maintain their weight.
Ellie
LA Times-Washington Post
Posted online: Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST
Baghdad, July 11
When Spc Matthew Curll left basic training for Iraq nearly a year ago, he traded a bland diet for burgers, pie and Fudgsicles.
“You go from a lot of crappy stuff at the mess hall to a loaded table on Sundays,” said Curll (21), of Massachusetts, over a dinner of baked chicken followed by ice cream in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all,” added Spc Joe Reen (23), also from Mass., finishing a turkey wrap and green salad. “You wanted to try everything.”
The two indulged at first, but said they learned to resist most of the fried food and extra desserts that dominate the menu at US dining facilities in Iraq. Others are not so careful, they said, including a few officers ahead of them in the chow line. “There were three colonels in front of me who got double scoops and extra toppings,” Reen said.
The Army has loaded the menu at the 70 chow halls, run by contractor KBR, with a buffet of fattening fare, from cheese steaks to tacos and Rocky Road ice cream. Many soldiers gain more than 15 pounds on a deployment, military dietitians say. They are also seeing soldiers return from Iraq with higher cholesterol, mostly due to their eating habits.
Soldiers are just as susceptible to overeating and packing on the pounds as anyone else, said Donald Williamson, a professor of nutrition at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
“Iraq presents some added challenges people don’t face here—sitting around a lot, then going from boring to distressing in a matter of minutes,” he said.
In Iraq, it’s up to a handful of military dietitians to steer the troops away from that second piece of pie a la mode and to the salad bars. Most recognise the hold food has in a place where a taste of home brings comfort.
But how many calories does the average soldier need? Most meals ready to eat, contain about 1,300 calories; three a day are recommended. Supplemented with energy bars and drinks, they give soldiers the 4,500 to 5,000 calories they need for an active day of patrols or on the front line. But many of the 400,000 meals served daily at chow halls in Iraq are consumed by soldiers who spend most of their time on base or at desk jobs.
And dietary misconceptions abound. Some soldiers load up on high-calorie meat to avoid perceived protein deficiencies. They guzzle sugary sodas, energy drinks and fruit juice to avoid dehydration when they’re better off with water.
A sample meal of fried chicken, two cheese sandwiches, chili, cheesecake, Gatorade and orange soda racked up 2,395 calories. A more conservative meal of fried chicken, brown rice, peas and diet soda was only 716 calories, but still above the 500-calorie plate Stankorb recommends for those trying to lose or maintain their weight.
Ellie