Comparisons of Utilizations and Nutrient Contents of a Rations and Short Order Meals at the Air Force Dining Facility, Lowry Air Force Base, Denver, Colorado.

摘要

The Lowry AFB survey was designed to evaluate the effects of including short order foods upon military nutrition. The study was limited to analysis of head count data, weighed food consumption, and wastes in the dining hall and diary data for foods eaten away from this facility. The average man-days for the rations-in-kind (RIK) population, for the 8 days of the survey, was 67% of the total RIK population that signed in at least once during the study. On this basis, 25% of the RIK personnel ate 3 meals per day, 43% ate two meals per day and 32% ate only one meal per day. Therefore, these personnel averaged 2 meals per day in the dining hall although the overall utilization of the dining hall, based on the total RIK personnel, was 43% or 1.3 meals/person/day. This is a poor utilization of a military dining hall by RIK personnel despite the availability of short order meals which, when offered, provided 42% of the meals. The dining hall provided RIK personnel with 79% of their caloric intakes during weekdays and 65% on the weekends (based on man-days). Total daily intakes for these personnel were less than military allowances for calories and less than NRC and military allowances for vitamin A, thiamin, and iron. Recommendations were to increase availabilities of these nutrients, increase dining hall attendance, reduce size of meals consumed and reduce plate and kitchen wastes.