addyb said:
Actually, I believe that the suggested 30 day limit is more to the point that rations tend to constipate you quite a bit and it's not entirely healthy when you're not having regular bowel movements. I know that reads a bit odd, but it makes perfect sense. It's not like a firefight is going to stop for ten minutes so that a soldier can do his business.
I could be wrong, though!
Adam
AFAIK, you're more or less right. Rations are designed to keep a soldier going in the field, not be a perfectly balanced diet. Also bear in mind that eating ratpacks and not exerting yourself might be disastrous for your wasitline; the current Canadian IMP loadout is ~
1200 kcal/meal , so eating 3/day will net you about 3600 kcal, not counting whatever you might snack upon between meals. The typical person is meant to get around 2000 kcal/day, and that's assuming you're doing something other than sitting at a desk.
I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation for my situation (31 yrs old, 62.3kg, 170cm, heavy activity) and it returned 2700 calories! Obviously this is only an approximation, but it still demonstrates that if I were living on IMP's I would probably start getting fat, even if I'm active! I can attest to having a ravenous appetite when our party backpacks in the mountains, since we're carrying ~20 kg packs with significant elevation changes, but I can't imagine "bushcrafting" as practiced by most to involve this kind of energy output.
I've also heard they bung up the works, and many aren't really all that tasty. Why not prepare your own tasty treats before heading out?
Edit: I also noticed that most every manufacturer declares a 2-3 year shelf life, at least on the new models, and the British model supplies 3800-4200 kcal/day.
FYI.
