Chow ramble ramble

What to feed soldiers and how much has been a concern and debate of their quartermasters and political representatives since the day someone decided guarding should be a permanent separate job instead of a communal part-time duty.

Some preferred to starve their soldiers and let the insane and enraged work at fevered pace- give them just enough to sustain life over the months, and no more, bad enough sometimes that the very muscles required withered with willpower.

Some preferred to feed their soldiers as reward. And feed. And feed. Legends of fat and over-content soldiers being massacred by vicious and savage hordes of the enemies they were supposed to guard against have become so common as to be a cliche over the many thousands of years.

Others decide, often for the soldiers, what is healthy and what will be alloted, and keep them to it.

In general, Darth is not a quartermaster and could easily be speaking out of turn, but as a soldier, there are basic elements that one can combine in a single bowl-serving that help sustain one.

Bread/rice/potato/tortilla works for fiber and for general sustenance as staples, of course, and vegetation makes the body work far better with eyesight and energy reserves. Meat or beans for protein and muscle are a given.

Sweets and condiments and the lovely sugars are unfortunately counterproductive, as are many dairy products, though these can in limited and correct quantities maintain and improve bone structure and bone density. The healthier the bones, the healthier the blood, the healthier the blood, the healthier the muscle, the healthier the muscle, the healthier the soldier.

With this in mind, historical meals combining these things come to mind. The non-fat and butterless version of cottage pie, for example, or what you might call shepard's pie if it had mutton. Or a nice gumbo. Chili with pepper, carrot, and bread. Thin curries or broths or stews made without the more pleasant tastes and economically.

Sandwiches.

Amalgamation meals, like gruel or the above, are both easier for a cook to make rapidly and can contain in one serving the required elements that other means of cooking or serving them independently would take several for to prepare properly.

In modern times, the MRE, or Meal Ready to Eat, is a chemically prepared set of substances that will cook themselves for the soldier and offer proper nutrition out of what were moments before simply packets of ingredient and dusty chemical.

The question of how many MREs go where to whom and what is healthy is again decided by quartermasters and scientists. And politicians.

... I'm hungry.

Forgive my overwinded thought train on that.