NUTRITIONAL REQUIREMENTS OF SUBMARINE PERSONNEL 



3i: 



pects. It is obvious that there are extremes 

 in both directions. Although sweets might 

 be very appeahng to many individuals, it 

 would not be very long before some nutri- 

 tional disturbance became manifest if the 

 diet were primarily built around these foods. 

 On the other hand, it would be very dif- 

 ficult to get normal young men to consume 

 for any length of time a nutritionally bal- 

 anced diet composed of a purified protein 

 such as casein, carbohydrate, and fat, sup- 

 plemented with all the necessary minerals 

 and vitamins. 



The question of food acceptability plays 

 a large role in the overall evaluation of the 

 diet. Up to the present time, little work 

 has been done on this problem. As in other 

 phases of nutritional research, realistic, long- 

 term studies are the only means by which 

 useful, practical information can be 

 obtained. Pritchett (51) emphasized this 

 point when he said, 'Tar too often tests and 

 decisions are made on the basis of just tast- 

 ing and not of consuming the item in pre- 

 scribed amounts at the same frequency and 

 for the same length of time as the people 

 who have to subsist on it. It is far easier to 

 prescribe food than to eat it." 



One of the complaints that has frequently 

 been heard about all of the services is that, 

 even though they received the best food 

 materials available, the dishes served from 

 the kitchens were often of poor quaUty. 

 To some extent this was true also of certain 

 items prepared by food processors during 

 the past war. Even though the foods met 

 the specifications, they were not as tasty 

 as the same substance prepared by other 

 manufacturers. For this reason it would 

 be advisable to establish a central purchasing 

 agency through which all food requisitions 

 would be channelled. This agency should 

 be charged with the responsibility of sup- 

 plementing the presently available specifica- 

 tions with some check on the gustatory 

 appeal of the foods. In this respect, due 

 consideration should be given to the pres- 

 ently available techniques for choosing the 



persons with superior taste discrimination 

 for such positions (33, 34). 



Nutritional Requirements of 

 Submarine Personnel 



There is no need to be concerned about 

 the adequacy of caloric intake except under 

 emergency conditions. Actually, both 

 among submarine personnel and the Ameri- 

 can people at large, overeating and over- 

 weight may present a much more serious 

 problem than undernutrition. Due to the 

 nature of the work and the confining hfe it 

 entails, there is a possibihty that for some 

 submariners eating may serve as a mecha- 

 nism of escape from monotony. Over a pe- 

 riod of time these men ma}^ show a consider- 

 able increase in weight. 



There are no data on changes in body 

 weight, but there is some evidence of a 

 tendency for the submarines to dispose of 

 larger amounts of food than are required for 

 weight equilibrium. In one study involving 

 over 70 men for about 40 days, the caloric 

 value of the food issued per men per day 

 was about 5,200 Cal.; this caloric value was 

 obtained on the basis of the U. S. Dept. 

 of Agriculture Tables of Food Compensation 

 (66). The study did not take into account 

 wastage. There is no way of determining 

 how many calories were actually consumed. 

 At any rate, the caloric value of the food 

 "as issued" is more than twice as high as 

 the estimated caloric expenditure of a com- 

 parable submarine crew. The average oxy- 

 gen consumption over a 24-hour period for 

 submarines operating in temperate zones is 

 equivalent to about 2,400 calories per man 

 per day (4). There are limitations in the 

 accuracy of both of these calculations, but 

 such caloric differences are worthy of further 

 investigation. 



On the basis of the present evidence, there 

 is no reason to think that the nutritional 

 requirements of the submariner are different 

 from those of other moderately active in- 

 dividuals. At first it might appear that, at 

 least in the case of vitamin D, an extra 



