Abstract

ARCARAZO GARCIA, L.A.. Ground Forces nutrition in operations: individual ration in combat. Sanid. Mil. [online]. 2014, vol.70, n.4, pp.293-306. ISSN 1887-8571.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S1887-85712014000400010.

The nutrition of the armies has traditionally been a fairly complex problem that has been based on two fundamental aspects, the economic capacity of those who were financing it (kings, the Inland Revenues or states), and the possibility of obtaining food. On the other hand, the nutritional value of those "military single-course meals" was leaving much to be desired, usually for the lack of immediate principles and vitamin deficiencies as the portions had very little meat and were lacking fresh products, what gave rise to deficiency diseases and the lack of physical condition among soldiers. Anyway, the concern for a proper nutrition of the armies reaches far back into the past, having led to the publication of countless books and standards all the way up to the real treaties of scientific character, published since the beginning of the 19th century. Soldiers of the Spanish army have suffered from food shortages both in the colonies and in the peninsula, always due to the resources instability. Their nutrition was improved when the country mended the losses arising from the Civil war in the decade of 1960, being a real novelty the introduction of "forecast rations" in the 1990s, which not only provided food in exercises and maneuvers in national territory, but also for the troops stationed in the different missions abroad.

Keywords : nutrition; campaign ration; forecast ration; collective nutrition; individual combat ration; collective ration.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )