# “Marines’ Menu Modified to Combat Chubby Leathernecks’ Desire for Fattening Food”



## ShadowSpear (Aug 21, 2018)

Ah finally some news to counter all the anti-Army propaganda on the site! 😆 

Marines’ Menu Modified to Combat Chubby Leathernecks’ Desire for Fattening Food


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## Devildoc (Aug 21, 2018)

Jokes aside, that is a huge step in the right direction.  It's the same set-up college and pro sports use at their training tables, but the athletes get tailored diets (i.e., "hey, you, you take 4 green, 2 yellow, 1 red....").  Let's face it, some of the food at DFACs suck and has the nutritional content of styrofoam.


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## ThunderHorse (Aug 21, 2018)

We had that system at Bliss five years ago...didn't stop anything...too much short order in the mess...but have you seen the food court options when you go to the PX?  Not exactly healthy.


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## Marine0311 (Aug 21, 2018)

Good. It's about time.


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## GOTWA (Aug 21, 2018)

ThunderHorse said:


> We had that system at Bliss five years ago...didn't stop anything...too much short order in the mess...but have you seen the food court options when you go to the PX?  Not exactly healthy.



That Chicago BBQ joint was nomnomnom.  Bliss has the best setup I've seen on an installation.


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## Centermass (Aug 21, 2018)

Marine0311 said:


> Good. It's about time.



Took someone from the Army to take away all your Reeses Pieces.


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## Devildoc (Aug 22, 2018)

ThunderHorse said:


> We had that system at Bliss five years ago...didn't stop anything...too much short order in the mess...but have you seen the food court options when you go to the PX?  *Not exactly healthy*.



No.  The Marines and Navy contracted with Subway (OK, that's alright...) and Dairy Queen (my Achilles heel), and most of the exchange food courts have BK, Chinese, and a taco shop.  Admittedly I have not eaten at a base DFAC in years.


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## J. (Aug 22, 2018)

Devildoc said:


> No.  The Marines and Navy contracted with Subway (OK, that's alright...) and Dairy Queen (my Achilles heel), and most of the exchange food courts have BK, Chinese, and a taco shop.  Admittedly I have not eaten at a base DFAC in years.



It’s the same still, this policy has been in effect  here for a while now. Doesn’t change anything. Still a line out the door for cheeseburgers and although there is a menu that explains the nutritional and caloric breakdowns, it is worthless as so many people are trying to get food that if you are the dude reading it you’ll run out of time and your chance to get in line before it’s time to go back to work.

If you want to eat “healthy” at the chow hall, you have to already know what’s the good good before you even walk in. If we spent even a fraction of the time we spend doing death runs on teaching our Marines on how to fuel their bodies we would be a stronger force as a whole.

A lot of Marines don’t even know what a calorie is or what carbohydrates do, and that’s not a “crayon eater” punchline, that’s a failure on our branch as a whole.


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## ThunderHorse (Aug 22, 2018)

J. said:


> It’s the same still, this policy has been in effect  here for a while now. Doesn’t change anything. Still a line out the door for cheeseburgers and although there is a menu that explains the nutritional and caloric breakdowns, it is worthless as so many people are trying to get food that if you are the dude reading it you’ll run out of time and your chance to get in line before it’s time to go back to work.
> 
> If you want to eat “healthy” at the chow hall, you have to already know what’s the good good before you even walk in. If we spent even a fraction of the time we spend doing death runs on teaching our Marines on how to fuel their bodies we would be a stronger force as a whole.
> 
> A lot of Marines don’t even know what a calorie is or what carbohydrates do, and that’s not a “crayon eater” punchline, that’s a failure on our branch as a whole.



It's a failure across the services.  We don't treat our service-members as athletes, because that's what the combat arms types are at-least: Here gun, run towards enemy.

There's like five green suiter nutritionists on Bliss, and the only way to get an appointment is to be a fat body.  But what if we had at least one Sports Nutritionist, Athletic Trainer, and S&C coach per Brigade let alone battalion.  I know that's what the Army brought Master-Fitness Trainer back for...but none of those guys are given the time blocks they need to bring that knowledge of Physical periodization and nutrition back to their troops.


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## Devildoc (Aug 22, 2018)

ThunderHorse said:


> It's a failure across the services.  We don't treat our service-members as athletes, because that's what the combat arms types are at-least: Here gun, run towards enemy.
> 
> There's like five green suiter nutritionists on Bliss, and the only way to get an appointment is to be a fat body.  But what if we had at least one Sports Nutritionist, Athletic Trainer, and S&C coach per Brigade let alone battalion.  I know that's what the Army brought Master-Fitness Trainer back for...but none of those guys are given the time blocks they need to bring that knowledge of Physical periodization and nutrition back to their troops.



Yes, it is a problem, force-wide, service-wide.  It needs to be made a priority, just like PT and safety stand-downs, and it needs to be more than a 15-minute PPT.  SOF does it right, and that is one place the conventional side and learn and adopt.


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## Cookie_ (Aug 23, 2018)

ThunderHorse said:


> But what if we had at least one Sports Nutritionist, Athletic Trainer, and S&C coach per Brigade let alone battalion.  I know that's what the Army brought Master-Fitness Trainer back for...



Hit the nail on the head.

It'd be great if the army utilized the nutritional care specialists (68M) as actual dietary aides instead of just glorified hospital cooks, made MFT an MOS, and had a CSCS as a BN level staff posting, but that's too much like common sense


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## Gunz (Aug 23, 2018)

Wait, what happened to run 6 miles, drink two cokes, smoke a Marlboro?


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## R.Caerbannog (Aug 23, 2018)

Ocoka said:


> Wait, what happened to run 6 miles, drink two cokes, smoke a Marlboro?


Liberals started screaming that Coke & reds are symbols of American imperialism and started media campaigns to demonize their use.


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## Teufel (Aug 23, 2018)

Honestly i thought this was going to be a thread about crayons.


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## SpongeBob*24 (Aug 23, 2018)

Ocoka said:


> Wait, what happened to run 6 miles, drink two cokes, smoke a Marlboro?



Exactly.......We had the same food at the mini-malls and the same DFAC food in the 90's and noone was fat......


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## Gunz (Aug 23, 2018)

SpongeBob*24 said:


> Exactly.......We had the same food at the mini-malls and the same DFAC food in the 90's and noone was fat......



Yeah, I mean if you're a young trigger-puller you can eat bad shit and burn it off. It's the dudes sitting on their asses in front of computer terminals all day who are putting on the pounds. I never saw a fat 03 or a fat Recon guy.


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## R.Caerbannog (Aug 23, 2018)

All jokes aside, DFAC's are a racket. The people implementing DFAC policy and decisions are budget oriented pencil pushing yes men who'll never have to rely on a DFAC for their nutritional needs.

There is a reason why restaurants tend to do so well off/on post and why health conscious Joe's prep meals in the barracks and shop at the commissary. Between (forced) shitty meal options and having to pay for an extra portion of protein, it's no small wonder guys look elsewhere to get fed. I mean, heck. One of the jokes for getting married to a stripper or a hippopotamus, is to get out of the barracks and away from the graft that is the DFAC. Hell, married guys get to eat better than their barracks counterparts.

It's not like it's hard to provide lean meat based proteins, veggies, and carbs to guys. Especially at the $350+ price point that the DFACS charges. Also, whoever came up with vegetarian and legumes based options can FOAD. Pencil pushers looking to save on pennies push this garbage out, cause Joe sure as shit ain't touching it.


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## Gunpowder (Aug 23, 2018)

This might help.. Parks62 on Twitter


Ocoka said:


> Wait, what happened to run 6 miles, drink two cokes, smoke a Marlboro?




Beer, cigarettes and copious amounts of Black Jack were in direct proportion with the amount of PT you were going to engage within the next 2-3 hrs....we figured how many calories we would burn then said screw it...Jack will do that to a fella...


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## DasBoot (Aug 23, 2018)

“Semper Pi porkers!”- greatest YouTube video ever.
Shit talk aside the DOD needs to do this good on the Corps for starting it off.


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## digrar (Aug 24, 2018)

How does your PT work?

We have Physical Training Instructors, they're Medical Corps (and before recent changes to the med tech trade, I'm pretty sure they were corps trained medics) however they're not direct entry recruited from the street, they're recruited from the rest of the army. 

They're selected for further training from the Combat Fitness Leader course that is run to develop soldiers who are tasked to run PT for sub units as an additional duty. Generally the top few members of those courses get offered a slot on the PTI course. 

Our area gyms are run by those PTIs, they'll run various classes for random walk ins, sessions for sub units, fitness tests for sub units that may not have qualified CFLs, put together training and diet plans for those that express and interest. I'm not entirely sure but they may also run unit gyms which are becoming more prevalent now (they were non existent in my time). 

In the Infantry and indeed most arms corps, exposure to PTIs outside of training centres and individual training at the gym was next to nil. We generally had enough CFLs to conduct structured PT, and failing that would just crack on with a plan run by the sub unit leadership.


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## Cookie_ (Aug 24, 2018)

R.Caerbannog said:


> It's not like it's hard to provide lean meat based proteins, veggies, and carbs to guys. *Especially at the $350+ price point that the DFACS charges.*



DFACs almost never get that full amount that is taken out of BAS. Money only comes in when joes actually eat, otherwise it goes back to somewhere in the DOD. 
So if PVT Snuffy eats breakfast just once a month, the DFAC will get $2.60 from that singular meal, but the army will still subtract that $300+ from his BAS allowance.
I wish DFACs ran budgets differently. If the brigade has "x" number of meal card holders, set that as the budget for the DFAC that month.


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## ThunderHorse (Aug 24, 2018)

@digrar PT in the Army is NCO led.  Qualification usually being a squad leader.  When I was a platoon leader, my senior section sergeant and I built a three month plan that was re-evaluated and planned again after every two months.


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## R.Caerbannog (Aug 24, 2018)

Cookie_101st said:


> DFACs almost never get that full amount that is taken out of BAS. Money only comes in when joes actually eat, otherwise it goes back to somewhere in the DOD.
> So if PVT Snuffy eats breakfast just once a month, the DFAC will get $2.60 from that singular meal, but the army will still subtract that $300+ from his BAS allowance.
> I wish DFACs ran budgets differently. If the brigade has "x" number of meal card holders, set that as the budget for the DFAC that month.


Huh, did not know that. If that's the case, where would the BAS balance go to then? Call me a cynic, but someone somewhere is getting money that should be going towards feeding the rank and file.

As for meal cards, that system is a travesty full of abuse and outright fraud. I've seen more married guys with meal cards (usually borrowed, scammed, or stolen) than guys living in the barracks. Considering how important nutrition is and the propensity for graft, the armed services need to transition towards the CAC card system; allowing guys access to food or charging them for food (if they are married).


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## digrar (Aug 24, 2018)

ThunderHorse said:


> @digrar PT in the Army is NCO led.  Qualification usually being a squad leader.  When I was a platoon leader, my senior section sergeant and I built a three month plan that was re-evaluated and planned again after every two months.



Gyms are contractor run?


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## Cookie_ (Aug 25, 2018)

R.Caerbannog said:


> Huh, did not know that. If that's the case, where would the BAS balance go to then? Call me a cynic, but someone somewhere is getting money that should be going towards feeding the rank and file.
> 
> As for meal cards, that system is a travesty full of abuse and outright fraud. I've seen more married guys with meal cards (usually borrowed, scammed, or stolen) than guys living in the barracks. Considering how important nutrition is and the propensity for graft, the armed services need to transition towards the CAC card system; allowing guys access to food or charging them for food (if they are married).



As far as I know, most active duty DFACs have switched to the CAC system, and everyone is supposed to be using it as of October 1st. 
I have no idea where the BAS deduction goes if soldiers don't eat in the DFAC. Hell, all that "unused but accounted for" money could go to the"black-ops budget" the news media gets worked up about every couple years.


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## Dimethylamine (Aug 25, 2018)

Devildoc said:


> Jokes aside, that is a huge step in the right direction.  It's the same set-up college and pro sports use at their training tables, but the athletes get tailored diets (i.e., "hey, you, you take 4 green, 2 yellow, 1 red....").  Let's face it, some of the food at DFACs suck and has the nutritional content of styrofoam.



I really hate how the Army does it sometimes.  They’d label mini pizzas as green or yellow because they had pathetic little frozen processed vegetables, beef yakisoba as green (all simple carbs) but I’d get something like a pork chop and it’s red.


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## ThunderHorse (Aug 25, 2018)

digrar said:


> Gyms are contractor run?



DA Civilians.


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