Speaking from a UK military MRE perspective, I'd never chose to eat one unless in field conditions or from operational necessity. At the risk of being flamed by a previous poster, they are designed deliberately to be high calorie and made with a long shelf life, not 'healthy' for the average person in day-to-day life.

I also can't imagine travelling somewhere without better food options than an MRE, and the time argument doesn't hold IMO.

Reading all the previous references to years of eating MREs makes me even more grateful that I'm in the part of the armed forces that goes to war with cabins, showers, stewards and silver service :D

As someone else said, to try? Sure!

In lieu of trying somewhere local - whether why traveling or at home? No way.

I can proudly say I have only had 1 MRE in my life (and I served 26 years in the military). It was the day we did the obstacle course and it was our only option. The one and only time I have ate one. Never again if I can help it.

We used to eat them when I was in the Marines. We weren't allowed to eat the desserts or heat them up, but they were ok flavor wise.

McDonald's is quick and easy for a cheap breakfast if you have limited time somewhere too. Not to mention, like you said, many times they have some 'interesting' options.

I always love McDonalds during trip. Especially when in a country where local food might be somewhat of an "acquired taste".

You weren't allowed to eat the desserts?

My guess would be that they weren't allowed desserts was "too much sugar" but I might be wrong.

No, not the females at least. This was back in the 90's, so things may have changed. We used to hear rumors that the males were given more leniency on the MRE's, but I can't confirm the accuracy of that.

I was on double rations because I only weighed around 100 lbs at 5'6". I think I was around 135 - 140 lbs when I entered, but I was at the end of the line (last name alphabetically reversed), so when the platoon leader, who ate 1st, was finished with their meal, everyone had to be finished. If the cafeteria people were slow, I was lucky to get 2 bites in.

Also, stealing/trading of the MRE's was rampant. You really wanted to either be on guard or be friends with whoever was, because if not, you were going to get the disgusting ones. (They would swap them while you were sleeping.) I think my favorites were the Chicken & rice and spaghetti ones. The worst was the corned beef hash. I never personally tried it.... I just went hungry, but I heard lots of complaints about it.

Interesting.

I've eaten a fair few MREs and some are definitely better than others. But they are high calorie (a 24 hour British Army rat pack is 3000-5500 calories, so definitely not for someone on a 2000 calorie a day diet!) and designed to make you poop less (oh biscuits, brown, how I do not miss you!)

But back to the original question, I have never found the need to seek out actual military MREs for travel, but I have been to a few places in the world where I have taken some food with me, just in case I have had trouble finding food I can eat (I don't eat meat or fish). I find 'MRE-type' meals rather handy, and in the 'ethnic food' section of my local supermarket, I can find boil in the bag vegetarian curries that are actually decent tasting, and you can also get pots of pre-cooked rice. Between the two of them, you can actually have a very decent meal with just a kettle. However, the need for them is pretty rare, I can't recall the last time I was in a city and couldn't find something to eat - it tends to be very rural places, with family style meals that I tend to have more of a problem.

I would never eat one if any halfway-reasonable alternative exists. That said, I do have a bunch in a go bag just in case SHTF.