MREs (Meals ready to Eat): A Bad Meal Idea

From time-to-time, various people discuss bringing military MREs on their Isle Royale trips. (MRE stands for "Meals Ready to Eat" or "Meals Rejected by Everyone" -- depending upon who you speak to ).

I am a longtime outdoors person and a former longtime member of the military. In my (never humble) opinion, MRE's are perhaps one of THE WORST meal choices to bring to a wilderness area --and there are so many better meal alternatives which exist.

One cool feature of MREs is the heater packet. Just add water, and a chemical reaction creates extreme heat--which then heats the meal. THE PROBLEM IS--you also have to PACK OUT--the (now) wet and smelly heater packet in your trash. The heater pack actually WEIGHS MORE going out of the wilderness than when you carried it in.

MREs themselves are a fairly heavy food choice. The meals (for the most part) have no dehydrated or freeze-dried components. Thus, you are carrying the full "liquid" and full "moisture" weight associated with every meal component. Each MRE weighs 18-26 oz. If a person were to bring "just" two MREs with them per day--that is 2.25 to 3.25 pounds per day THREE MREs per day, could weigh nearly 5 lbs. (fully packaged). For a 7 day trip, that is 16-34 lbs of food (depending upon the weight of each specific MRE and the number of MREs per day).

The amount of packaging (i.e. trash) with MREs is extreme and heavy. Even if someone "stripped" the MRE of all of the excess stuff --while still at home--the remaining MRE components would STILL have lots of heavy and bulky trash.
Many people are critical of the taste of MREs. (Then again, since the very beginning of ancient militaries, soldiers have been famous for their ability to complain.).

There is much anecdotal evidence--and a tiny bit of scientific evidence -- indicating that consuming MREs can increase the likelihood of constipation.

In summary:
MREs are bulky, heavy, create lots of heavy trash, may not taste very good--and MIGHT cause constipation. Gee, why doesn't EVERYBODY want to rush right out buy a bunch of MREs to take on their next Isle Royale trip! LOL