I still think that Thanksgiving Dinner should be MRE's.............
I still think that Thanksgiving Dinner should be MRE's.............
Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
Evoking the 50 year old rule...
First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
Member Wahoo Killer knives club....#27
I don't really like MRE's they make a lot of garbage to carry out and, don't taste very good. Mountain house makes some good dehyrated foods but, like you said they are pricy
I like fishing lol
I come from generations of all sorts of military branches, and for what its worth. I like them, and anything else dealing with dehydrated foods.
hehehe...love em.....less garbage actually...cos its only the packings..instead of the inner parts being gutted, and all the packings of other stuff..hehee
I'm a Gramp who is not computer savvy, give me a slab and the rock ages tablet..I will do fine!
MREs are a not the best option to carry around my area. Too much packaging and water content/weight. Dehydrated meals work much better, can carry a lot more supplies for the same weight in MREs. But I have always liked the taste of MREs.
I do have dehydrated rice as rice is my staple food. However the MREs are usually, beef ,chicken, sardines (in curry)...I get from thenMalaysian army..part of their opts rations.
Dehydrated fruits and coffee after the meals ...heaven!
I'm a Gramp who is not computer savvy, give me a slab and the rock ages tablet..I will do fine!
I was gifted 3 boxes of MREs from MRE Depot for Christmas (the best kind of MRE. Free.)
Guess they had a special recently or something?
These are the mysterious Menu C rations.
Just cracked one meal open, just to try it in a non-threatening environment.
Picked a Brisket and Garlic Potatoes. Sounded good for lunch.
It actually was pretty good, IMO, except for one thing.
Nearly 1600mg of sodium in the meat, which I discovered after I dug the carton back out of the recycle bin.
I don't eat that much salt in a day (unless it's on bacon) so that was an incredibly crazy amount all at once.
Good thing I don't have high blood pressure. At least, I didn't, until now...
Are they all going to be like that because they are supposedly "arid region" contractor rations?
Last edited by LowKey; 01-10-2015 at 12:04 PM.
If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
~ President Ulysses S. Grant
A lot of the long term storage foods (retort packaging, dehydrated, freeze dried, etc) have a high sodium content. Not sure if its use is preservative in nature or sodium replenishment for high activity. It is important - especially for those that have high blood pressure concerns.
I think it's probably for both purposes myself, but the later is pretty critical, especially if one is drinking as much wate as they might crave under prolonged strenuous activity in the field. It may also help retention and to reduce the frequency of urinary output.
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice - Grey's Law.
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To see what's going on in my knife shop check out CanidArmory on Youtube or on Facebook.
I'd think the last thing you want to do in a desert situation is reduce urinary output artificially. That's a sign of dehydration you might not want to miss.
If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
~ President Ulysses S. Grant
You're putting the cart before the horse there.
The intended use of high sodium rations like these presupposes adequate hydration, and in fact sufficient training to know the required water intake and therefore whether your meeting it in the first place.
In any event, if you are eating them and you still monitor for reduction of output then the only thing that has changed from a lower sodium diet is an increased time period and a reduced baseline output.
Last edited by canid; 01-11-2015 at 08:09 AM.
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice - Grey's Law.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To see what's going on in my knife shop check out CanidArmory on Youtube or on Facebook.
I agree with canid it was always my understanding that as long as you have plenty of water (fluids) to drink if you are in a hot environment and expending calories your body will be sweating and losing body salts. Therefore foods or drinks that can replace at least some of these salts can actually help unless your health is such that your are extremely hypertensive. My wife's grandfather naturally had very low blood pressure and consumed huge amounts of salt with no ill effects. He was a welder on oil fields in West Texas in extreme heat and needed lots of salt and water most of his working life, it was never a problem for him, he was never fat either. Different people have different health issues and need to be aware of them.
Once I tried those Mayday 2400 and 3600 calorie bars to see if it would be anything I would want to keep for an emergency. They are also extremely high in sugar (corn sweetener as I recall). Basically ground up powered breakfast cereal compressed into blocks. I prefer protein and salt. Mountain House, Backpacker's Pantry and many other brands or dozens for items you can find in a grocery store have a shelf life of at least a year, some over 10 years.
Bottom line, it depends on you specific health, environment, daily activities and personal tastes etc.
I'm going to weigh in here. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this question, and the answer for most scenarios is Mountain House.
Mountian House is hands down the best
I spent years trying to find the best food storage solution. Basically, there's a lot of stuff out there that people don't know about MREs. One of the main things is that a lot of them are actually really bad for you and not designed to be eaten consistently You have to be careful of what you're putting into your body. This is why I try to tell everyone to stay as far away as possible from the military MREs. Trust me, I get the nostaligic factor probably better than most since I was enlisted, but I always see guys spending tons of money on those and they're getting conned out of their money. They're not at all good for you, they're full of preservatives, and they have tons of empty calories. That's outstanding if you're fighting the Vietnam war, but most of us are not going to want to eat that for a long period of time.
I've shopped all around, and Mountain House MREs are hands down the best I've found. I mean, they're literally like a miracle of modern science. First of all, they're delicious. You will be surprised. They have a really extensive menu of stuff that you can try, including Chinese fried rice. Secondly, the way they make the food store is they dehydrate it. That means the way they preserve themselves is by having all the water removed out of it. So there's no artificial preservatives or whatever other junk you'd find in other, cheaper MREs. Thirdly, they have enough calories that you won't starve but not so many that you'll have health problems. I think there's somewhere between 350 and 500 per individual package (depending on the type). Finally, they last a very long time. A lot of this stuff will stay good for well over 20 years.
For longer term storage, they have the cans too. I have a mix in my house of bags and cans.
Last edited by InfantryAmerican; 03-04-2016 at 12:03 AM.
These are under $115 and you get alot!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ac2bba2dc9a758
If you want to buy in smaller amounts these two are decent:
Less than $15: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...34843b415ce288
Less than $55: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...b0569b21eec985
MRE Depot still has June 2015 production dated (Inspect June 2018) menu C for $104 a box of 12 full meals. All the 2016s are gone.
If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
~ President Ulysses S. Grant
Hummmm...still have a case of MRE from Desert Storm...wonder if they are still good?
Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
Evoking the 50 year old rule...
First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
Member Wahoo Killer knives club....#27
Good as in Yummy or good as in I won't die from them? That first one is gonna be hard even if they are new.
hunter, they are not good. I ate some from 2002....in 2012, and it was pushing it as far as spoilage. All the fruit stuff (applesauce, mixed fruit salad..etc) was definitely spoiled. The skittles were hard as rock, and the M&Ms had disintegrated into dust. The cheeses were on their last legs. The Peanut butter was okay, along with the crackers. Some of the main menus tasted off a little and some were normal. I definitely wouldn't eat anything past 15 years. They have a 5 year shelf life, by the way.
I've taken a vow of poverty. To annoy me, send money.
http://www.youtube.com/user/FinallyMe78?feature=mhee
Yeah I know....LOL....just hard to throw anything out......so have been tossing them one at a time....keeping out the fuel tabs and tabasco...that's kinda brown.
I suspect this is another buy. stash and forget, to give yourself that warm fuzzies......... Thinking "I'm prepared".
This stuff needs to be revolving stock...but I'll bet almost never is.
I not good at eating "sniffed food".....LOL
Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
Evoking the 50 year old rule...
First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
Member Wahoo Killer knives club....#27
I did sniffed food a couple of weeks ago. Wound up with an e. coli infection. It may have been the sickest I've ever been in my life. Lasted about ten days and was 2 weeks before I was back on regular food. No more sniffed food for me. The icebox was cleaned out and it will stay that way!
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