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CHAPTER 7
NUTRITION AND MENU PLANNING
One of your most important duties as a senior Mess
Management Specialist (MS) is to see that the general
mess (GM) customers are always well fed. To be well
fed means that they should have not only enough food
but also the right kind of food in the proper
combinations; that is, foods containing the correct
amounts of the various nutrients necessary to good
health and well-being. To accomplish this, the menus
must be carefully and skillfully planned to produce the
right combinations of food in dishes that will appeal to
the personnel to whom they are served. This should be
accomplished within your budget and with the food
items you have had the foresight to stock on board. This
service must be carried out afloat and ashore,
consistently, under varying operating conditions, in
widely differing geographic locations, and in all kinds
of weather.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide you with
the information and guidance needed in the areas of
menu planning, and nutrition, and ultimately, in the
supervision of other personnel in this area.
The foodservice division is a customer service
oriented division, and customer satisfaction is one of our
primary goals. We should take every opportunity to
motivate the personnel who man the contact points
(galley, serving line, and mess area), whether civilian or
military, to do their best and to take pride in the caliber
of service they provide their shipmates. Motivating our
personnel in these positions provides a special challenge
to the senior MS. We should make sure the personnel
manning these contact points realize that they are part
of a people-oriented team, that they are an important part
of our Navy, and that the positions they hold at these
contact points are positions of special trust that support
our most important resource-our Navy men and
women.
NUTRITION
Nutrition is the science of the nourishment of the
human body, the science of food. To master this science
we should familiarize ourselves with the nature of food.
Food is composed of various nutrients: proteins,
carbohydrates, fats, minerals, vitamins, and water.
Nutrition concerns itself with determining what
components are needed and how much of each is
required to maintain healthy bodies. Nutrition concerns
itself with the ways in which foods are altered in
processing, storage, and preparation, and in the ways in
which foods are transformed chemically in the body.
Nutrition deals with the preparation and serving of foods
in such a way as to make sure the nutrients necessary to
good health are not unnecessarily lost in the process. In
addition, nutrition should be concerned with the social,
economic, cultural, and psychological implications of
foods.
When you prepare your next meal, the patrons will
have definite ideas-positive or negative-about the
meal and the specific foods that are served. They may
delight in the variations in the texture, in the color
combinations of the food, in the artistic touch of a
garnish, or they may find the food unacceptable because
the fuel lacks color or is carelessly served. They may
enjoy the tantalizing smell of meat, of freshly baked
rolls, or the fragrance of fully ripened fruit. The odor of
grease that has been too hot or of vegetables that have
been cooked too long may cause lack of appetite and
even nausea The patrons will experience countless
flavors-the salty, sweet, bitter, and sour tastes and their
variations; they will feel the textures of smooth or
fibrous, crisp or soft, creamy or oily, moist or dry foods.
The provision of a nutritious diet, well cooked and
attractively served, plays an important part in the
acceptability of a meal.
FOOD CONTENT
Food is any substance consisting essentially of
protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, vitamins, and
water that is used in the body to sustain growth, to build
and repair tissues, to furnish energy, and to sustain the
vital processes of the body. The body’s needs for the
various nutrients vary with age, sex, occupation, and
environment. A child needs certain foods to grow and
the body continues to require certain foods for its
upkeep. Vitamins, minerals, and proteins provide
regulators that enable the body to use other materials.
Fuel for the body’s energy and warmth is provided by
food.
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