U.S. soldiers in Iraq face battle of the bulge

BAGHDAD, Iraq — When Spc. Matthew Curll left basic training for Iraq nearly a year ago, he traded a bland diet of MREs for burgers, pie and Fudgsicles.

"You go from a lot of MREs and crappy stuff at the mess hall to prime rib on Sundays," said Curll, 21, of Lancaster, Mass., over a dinner of baked chicken followed by ice cream in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

"I wasn't expecting it at all," added Spc. Joe Reen, 23, of Norwood, Mass., finishing a turkey wrap and green salad. "You wanted to try everything."

The two indulged at first but said they learned to resist most of the fried food and extra desserts that dominate the menu at U.S. dining facilities in Iraq. Others are not so careful, they said, including a few officers ahead of them in the chow line.

"There were three colonels in front of me who got double scoops and extra toppings," Reen said.

The Army has loaded the menu at the 70 chow halls, run by contractor KBR, with a buffet of fattening fare, from cheese steaks to tacos and Rocky Road ice cream.

"From boring to distressing"

Many soldiers gain more than 15 pounds on a deployment, military dietitians say. They are also seeing soldiers return from Iraq with higher cholesterol.

Soldiers are just as susceptible to overeating and packing on the pounds as anyone else, said Donald Williamson, a professor of nutrition at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

"Iraq presents some added challenges people don't face here — sitting around a lot, then going from boring to distressing in a matter of minutes," he said.

In Iraq, it's up to a handful of dietitians to steer the troops away from that second piece of pie a la mode and to the salad bars. Most recognize the hold food has in a place where a taste of home brings comfort.

"There are three things that are absolutely crucial for morale: mail, food and showers," said 1st Lt. Susan Stankorb, a licensed dietitian with the 28th Combat Support Hospital, a mobile unit that is presently based at Baghdad's Ibn Sina Hospital. "You have to have your chicken nuggets and your ice cream now and again. For the soldiers, that helps."

But how many calories does the average soldier need?

Most MREs, or meals ready to eat, contain about 1,300 calories; three a day are recommended. Supplemented with energy bars and drinks, they give soldiers the 4,500 to 5,000 calories they need for an active day of patrols or on the front line.

But many of the 400,000 meals served daily in Iraq are consumed by soldiers who spend most of their time on base or at desk jobs.

Erroneous ideas

And dietary misconceptions abound. Some soldiers load up on high-calorie meat to avoid perceived protein deficiencies. They guzzle sugary sodas, energy drinks and fruit juice to avoid dehydration when they're better off with water.

Many times soldiers don't even realize how poorly they're eating, Stankorb said. So she photographed some of their white plastic dinner plates of food and posted the pictures outside her office with cautionary calorie breakdowns under the headline: "The average soldier gains 10 pounds while deployed. Don't let that happen to you!"

A sample meal of fried chicken, two cheese sandwiches, chili, cheesecake, Gatorade and orange soda racked up 2,395 calories. A more conservative meal of fried chicken, brown rice, peas and diet soda was only 716 calories, but still above the 500-calorie plate Stankorb recommends for those trying to lose or maintain their weight.

Of course, soldiers also snack between meals, on care packages full of cookies, candy from the post exchange, or fries, pizza and Frappuccinos ("liquid sugar" to military dietitians) from fast-food purveyors.

There are 73 such outlets on U.S. bases in Iraq, according to the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, which operates them. They include Burger King, Pizza Hut and KFC.

"For some of them, it's their third or fourth deployment, and there's only so many menu options you can offer," Stankorb said. "They're burnt out on the dining facilities and so they go for the Burger King or the Easy Mac their wife sends."

Stankorb, who is petite and slender, has boxes of Girl Scout cookies and macaroni and cheese in her office. And she had just ordered nacho fixings online: chips, salsa and Velveeta cheese.

"I get a little frustrated," she said. "This is the third time this week I've had baked chicken."

Soldiers have their weight checked against a chart every six months. If they're too heavy, they are measured to gauge their body fat. If soldiers fail this "tape test," they won't be promoted or receive awards until they lose the weight.

A Pentagon study released in January found the number of overweight service members rose 20 percent in the last decade. Dietitians say their main concern is soldiers be fit to fight and don't become a burden on their unit in the field.

"Our soldiers are like world-class athletes. They should train properly and they should eat properly, because that can have a direct impact on the success of their missions," said Lt. Col. John Ruibal, who saw soldiers eat cheesecake for dinner when he served as dietitian with 30th Medical Brigade in Baghdad last year.

But with so many extended deployments, dietitians realize it may be too much to ask soldiers under stress and far from home to diet.

"Sometimes, I'm not sure it's appropriate to enforce the weight standards for soldiers in theater who are facing a lot of stress," Stankorb said. "At the same time, when you pick someone up who's 270 pounds on a litter, it's a challenge. And it does create some health risks."

So dietitians created a Weight Watchers-style program called "Operation Weight Loss," posted cards in the chow halls that show the calories, fat and sodium for foods and even mounted "Biggest Loser" weight-loss competitions.

Navy Spc. Emmitt Hawks of Jacksonville, N.C., has dropped 65 pounds since October, down to 180 pounds, by eating more healthful foods.

But Hawks, 35, said eating healthily can be tough for soldiers in the field facing greater danger and fewer meal options. He said he couldn't blame a friend who holed up with some junk food after seeing the trailer next to his hit by a mortar shell, killing the soldier inside.

"I've heard people say, 'Today could be my last day,' and they'll eat," Hawks said. "But I want to be where I can run as fast as I can to that bunker when I hear a duck-and-cover order."