Think twice before biting in. Are you making a smart food
choice?
Healthy eating coupled with active living is the foundation
for healthy living, which is critical to maintaining a ready and deployable
force.
Optimal nutrition keeps Airmen performance ready – mentally
and physically prepared for mission success. It enables faster recovery from
injury, exercise and stress.
Healthy eating promotes healthy Airmen and healthy
communities. “A lot of our initiatives focus on how to make the healthy choice
the easy choice. This requires improving access to and availability of healthy
food options,” explains Lt. Col. Deborah Robinson, senior leader of Air Force
Reserve Dietetics.
Committed to championing an environment supportive of
healthy eating and active living, the Air Force Medical Service has developed
specific initiatives that promote healthier choices for Airmen and their
communities.
Healthy Airmen
Take these steps to help incorporate healthy eating into
your daily routine:
• At the commissary, shop the perimeter, where healthier
choices are found (fruits, vegetables, whole grain, low-fat/nonfat dairy and
lean protein).
• Read nutrition facts labels to help identify nutrition
content.
• Plan meals in advance.
• Track your food and drink intake.
• Consider employing tools such as the USDA’s MyPlate or
SuperTracker.
Healthy Communities
Take these steps to cultivate community-wide healthy eating:
• Go for Green® in dining facilities.
The Department of Defense’s G4G program uses a stoplight
system of green, yellow and red to identify nutritious foods. Foods are
color-coded based on their nutrition quality, which can impact an Airman’s
fitness, strength and health. Green
signifies performance enhancing foods. When selecting from menu offerings, keep
in mind the significance of these labels:
• Green (eat often)
• Yellow (eat occasionally)
• Red (eat rarely)
The DOD is working to improve the G4G system through three
specific goals. The first is to increase availability and variety of
green-coded food recipes. The second goal is to make green-coded foods
attractive and delicious. The final focused goal is to revamp existing
green-coded food recipes.
• Exercise dietary supplement safety.
Supplements can have strong effects in the body. It is important to keep in mind that the Food
and Drug Administration does not approve dietary supplements for safety or
effectiveness. A supplement can be
marketed without being proven safe, effective or free from adulterants. The FDA
received 6,307 dietary supplement adverse event reports from 2008-2011,
including 92 deaths (GAO Report, March 2013).
Some supplements can increase the risk of bleeding. There is also the potential for adverse
reactions when supplements are combined with prescription drugs. It is
important to remain vigilant about the possibility of unexpected side effects
when taking dietary supplements. If you use supplements, choose brands that
have undergone “third party certification.”
Third party certification does not guarantee the supplement is safe or
effective, but validates manufacturing practices, purity or quality.
Stay educated. Operation Supplement Safety is a DOD campaign
that educates the warfighter and healthcare provider on responsible supplement
use. OPSS provides a list of “red flag”
high-risk supplements and hosts an “Ask an Expert” forum to address specific
concerns.
For tips on exercising dietary supplement safety, visit OPSS
at http://hprc-online.org/dietary-supplements/opss.
• Follow 5210, to improve children’s health.
5210 Healthy Military Children is a community-wide program
to improve children’s health. 5210 promotes healthy behaviors, to put into
practice each day:
• Five or more fruits and vegetables
• Two or less hours of screen time
• One or more hours of physical activity
• Zero sugar-sweetened beverages
For more information on 5210, check out the 5210 toolkit at
http://www.5210.healthymilitarychildren.psu.edu/5210-healthy-military-children-form.
• Incorporate Operation Live Well:
Operation Live Well is the DOD’s initiative to promote
healthy living throughout our communities. For more tips on healthy eating,
visit Operation Live Well: Nutrition at
http://www.health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Operation-Live-Well/Focus-Areas/Nutrition.
AFMS Healthy Living Recipes
Healthy eating promotes readiness, optimal performance,
better health and better care – all key factors to the success of Full Spectrum
Readiness. For nutritious and tasty recipes, check out AFMS Healthy Living
Recipes.
For additional health improvement resources, call the Joint
Base San Antonio-Randolph Human Performance Resource Center at 652-2300.
For more AFMS guidelines on nutrition and exercise, visit
http://www.airforce
medicine.af.mil/HealthyLiving.