Vegetarianism is common enough these days that I assume the military can accomodate such a diet – what about vegans, though? Would they just have to work their own way through the offerings as best they could, or would accomodations be made?
It’s easy to be a vegatarian in the military as long as you have no problem eating pork. Maybe a little chicken and some beef.
The military is not set up very well for vegatarians. I’m sure it is worse for vegans. Over the years they have done more to accomodate special diets. MREs have vegatarian selections now but not many. Basically your choices are very limited. While in garrison you can get on separate rations. That means you don’t get free meals in the mess hall but you get paid an allowance for food. Most people I knew with special diets did this and took care of their own meals. It is much harder to do when your unit is in the field. Most vegatarians I know don’t eat much when we are in the field.
Are there kosher rations and menus? I bet that is a more common dietary restriction.
Would a vegan join the Army at all? (you know, with the killing of people and all)
It would seem to me that being a vegan (or even a committed vegetarian) would be something do-able in peacetime, but in wartime, might be impossible.
I’m envisioning a scenario where the company is in the field, and due to supply issues, ends up with nothing but case after case of Chicken-a-la-King MREs for weeks on end.
I think in that situation, the military’s going to be more concerned that everyone gets fed, not whether or not they get their special diet or not.
(and, the same food for weeks-on-end is paraphrased from a guy I know that was a tank company commander, and had it happen to him on manouvers).
And if Jewish or Muslim soldiers were faced with a scenario where Kosher/Halal food was unavaible they’d simply eat whatever rations they got.
I know this is going to sound surprising, but most of the vegans I know are most decidedly NOT pacifists. The vegan decision is often arrived at based on concepts of Animal Liberation and equating human and animal rights at one end OR minimizing the suffering of lowly dumb beasts over which we have stewardship at the other. Two rather diametrically opposed ideas - one that animals are thinking and have rights, the other that they’re unthinking and have no rights - that arrive at the same conclusion: causing animals to suffer for our food and clothing needs is bad.
Neither one has anything to do with killing humans, in wartime or any other time.
I’m mostly wondering how one gets enough nutrition in a vegan meal in a small portable container to adequately feed a soldier. Those little MREs have thousands of calories to support the daily activity on the march - calories mostly derived from animal fats - and protein to repair torn muscle fibers (and of course lots of starch). It seems like you’d need a hell of a lot of hummus and celery to get you through the day.
What got me thinking about this was a former underling who joined the Navy. She was going to go to the language school at Monterrey, and not active duty on a ship == but yeah, I know a vegan in the Navy.
The British, who have a more cosmopolitan makeup to their forces, have kosher, halal, vegetarian and specific Sikh/Hindu rations. No mention of vegan, though.
I was a cook at OCS at Quantico for the summer of 1984. We offered one menu - you ate what you wanted off that menu but you ate that menu only. No special orders, no substitutions, no exceptions.
NOW MOVE MARINE!
"Emo Battalion…Goth-Stream Guards!
In your own tiiiime…
SLACK!"
Jewish religious rules specifically say that eating non-Kosher food to avoid starvation is allowed, even required. Starving yourself to keep Kosher isn’t helpful to the survival of the chosen people. (I’ve seen the specific cites right here on SMDB; a search could probably find them.)
I expect that Muslim rules are similar.
In wartime, you eat when you can, whatever is available. I know in WWII my strongly catholic uncles ate meat on Friday, if that was what was being served, with no hesitation at all.
Calories can be supplied by vegetable oils. Nuts contain both protein and oils in a concentrated form. Dried fruits can also supply many, many calories in the form of sugar, along with various nutrients and fiber to keep things moving. Clever combinations of legumes with grains can provide more usable protein per pound than meat. Bottom line is that, although many vegetarian foods have a low nutrient density, it is possible to provide highly concentrated nutrients and calories without resorting to animal parts.
Whether there is the interst and will to develop such meals is another question.
I understand the feeling about eating what’s there in case of emergencies, but I remember a vegetarian friend falling real ill once they gave him a pastry with ham by mistake. I am sure the effects won’t be so dire for a jewish having his first shrimp, but bad things might happen when you get canned pork and you have never had anything similar.
The US military has vegetarian options readily available, as well as kosher/halal. Vegans are SOL, however. My cousins (career Army) tell me that the kosher meals are quite tasty and bring a premium when swapping. In the field with allies, the ratio tends to skew in favor of German, then Canadian, then “anything but the same fucking MREs!” One German ration can cost you 4 MREs.
I don’t eat red meat, and I’ve survived with MRE’s in quasi-field conditions for many weeks. This means about once every two days I’d hit the main chow hall and have a real hot meal. As far as the MRE’s go, I believe I could survive solely on them for some time (it’d be painful, but possible). I won’t eat any meat that I find in a MRE–I find it way too unappetizing. They have other side-type packets, like pasta, that were barely edible (to me–I know many guys that had no problem eating the stuff). As far as the chow halls go, I’ve been to many, many chow halls and sometimes won’t eat any meat at all, and I have never had a problem getting enough to eat.
Speaking from the Brit forces they have vegetarian Rat Packs (as we like to call them) but only one or at push 2. All the others contain meat. However i guess you could always eat the brown biscuits if you were really picky and your teeth could stand it.
The problem with this ‘choice’ is that when thing do hit the fan, ie th preperation for invasion of Iraq you tend to get 3 big crates filed with the same Rat Pack. So you get what your given. Thats why most brit troops carry curry or chili powder with them.
Plus they dont have chemical cooking like MREs. You have to use an open fire on a hexi burner. And as they have light displine you end up eating it cold.
On a seperate note the best MRE ever was shrimp Jambalaya.
I could be utterly mistaken but I was under the impression that the MREs were designed to slow the bowels down rather than keep them moving.
It seems to me that if ever there were an actual need for ‘people kibble’ (as discussed several times previously here on the boards), it would be in the case of combat rations - it ought to be fairly easy to create nutritionally complete people kibble in a range of varieties suitable for a range of different dietary restrictions.
I’m sure there would be morale issues if people had to eat it all the time, but at times when high mobility is in order, I’d have thought it would be more compact and convenient than MREs or rat packs.
Up to a point, but you don’t want to stop the bowels entirely as that level of constipation can be as debilitating as diarrhea.
You have to get your command’s approval for separate rations. When I was assigned to NTC Great Lakes back in the early 1990s, I and a few other people had demonstrable problems with gastroesophageal reflux disease. We were instructed by a medical doctor to apply for separate rations so we could follow an appropriate low-fat diet. We were also turned down because there wasn’t adequate storage or cooking facilities. The senior chief also told us that he didn’t want a bunch of people being paid to eat out all the time, and we could just eat what the chow hall served. :rolleyes:
Robin