Officials admit link between nutrition and health, award $6 million contract to study nutrition for US troops

Saturday, October 29, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: soldiers, nutrition, health news

(NaturalNews) Soldiers in the American military are apparently not performing to their full potential. This has prompted the federal government to award a $6 million contract to the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., to study how to improve the quality and nutritional value of military food.

The research, which seeks to "increase resilience to injury and maximize physical and mental effectiveness" through nutrition (according to a recent report from Navy Times), proves what we here at NaturalNews have been saying for a long time -- that vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are vitally important for preventing disease and promoting good health.

"The whole purpose (of the research) is better nutrition to promote warfighter resilience and optimal cognitive performance," said Jennifer Rood, principal investigator of the project entitled "Collaborative Research to Optimize Warfighter Nutrition," to Navy Times.

Wait, did Rood just link nutrition to recovery and brain function? What does the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have to say about this implication that nutrients play a role in boosting health and warding off disease?

It appears as though the same government that denies any link between food or nutritional supplement intake and health promotion and disease prevention among the public is now saying the opposite as it concerns soldiers' performance in the military.

Though such research positively benefits soldiers that serve in the armed forces, it also represents a double standard. The government apparently has no interest in keeping the average American healthy or in devoting a single taxpayer dollar towards nutrition research for the public interest -- but when military performance is affected by bad nutrition, the cash starts flowing.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/09/milita...