Blood Chemistries Following Repeated Days of First Strike Ration or Meal, Ready-to-Eat consumption

To determine if the First Strike Ration FSR sustains nutritional and metabolic status as effectively as the Meals, Ready to Eat MRE, blood chemistries were compared between Soldiers who consumed 1 FSR 2864 Kcal, 377 g CHO, 91 g PRO, 109 g Fat per day or 2 MRE 2620 Kcal, 348 g CHO, 84 g PRO, 102 g Fat per day while performing 3 days of wildland fire suppression. Eighteen Soldiers were randomly assigned to one of two diet groups. Food intake was quantified from dietary logs and food wrapper waste. Daily activity was measured by accelerometry. While FSR group ate on average 300-400 additional kcal per day over first two days and exhibited a general pattern of more time spent in moderate activity and less time sedentary compared to the MRE group, these differences were not statistically significant. In both diet groups, blood glucose declined while Beta-HB and FFA rose over time p0.05 with no differences between diet groups. AST and preALB were unaffected by diet and stable over the 3 days. It was concluded that FSR sustained nutritional and metabolic markers as effectively as MRE over 3 days of arduous labor.