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New Army Rules Require Warning Labels on Desserts and Fried Foods

  • Spence Cooper
  • March 5, 2012

New Army Rules Require Warning Labels on Desserts and Fried FoodsIn yet another example of central planning idiocy complements of the Nanny state, the U.S. Army has enacted a new mess hall labeling system that places warning labels on desserts and fried foods, and soda machines have been replaced with “hydration stations”.

The “Go for Green“program labels healthy foods green, moderate foods amber, and high calorie foods red.

According to Elizabeth Harrington with CNS News, Lt. Col. Sonya Cable represents the U.S. Army Soldier Fueling Initiative, which is remaking dining facilities at Initial Military Training sites across the country.

She currently serves as a dietitian and the Chief of the Human Dimensions Division within the Initial Military Training Center of Excellence.

Since the “Go for Green”education program alerts soldiers to the glaringly obvious, it’s clear someone in management assumes U.S. Army personnel are children incapable of thinking for themselves, thus requiring a simple-minded color coded food menu.

But Lt. Col. Cable isn’t content with applying her “red, amber, green”cafeteria mentality to just soldiers, Cable advises using the “red, amber, green”system in public schools too — as if students presented with this infantile system will somehow suddenly see the light and avoid red labeled foods.

“My eyes got opened very quickly that it really is a community,”she said, about her visit to Fort Jackson, S.C. “We talk about a village that raises a child. Well a community develops a brand new soldier, too. And that’s what we found there”

When Cable arrived in Fort Jackson, S.C. seven years ago to observe its dining facilities, she says there were typical dining facility type styles, with fried foods and salad bars.

“We had soda machines and the pastries were, you know, typical cookies, cake, cakes, pies, all of those types of things. Well, then we had the challenge of, okay, now we’re taking former civilians, now developing into soldiers and trying to develop them,”she said.

This was the beginning of the Soldier Fueling Initiative and Cable’s efforts to influence the behavior of new recruits. If you walk into a basic training cafeteria today you will find far fewer fried foods and soda machines have been replaced with “hydration stations,”she explained.

Red Food Example: Oven-fried bacon, sausage gravy, butter, sugary cereal and egg, sausage and cheese sandwiches. Salisbury steak, BBQ spareribs, grilled pork chops, Yankee pot roast and turkey gravy.

Green Food Example: Baked tuna and noodles, Brussels sprouts, spinach, turkey meatloaf, peas and carrots.

For lunch and dinner, soldiers are advised to choose hamburger yakisoba — which by the way is FRIED — over grilled cheeseburgers.

“In the military we all kind of know red means, uh oh, there’s problems,'”Cable said. “Amber, middle of the road, we’re doing okay. And green is good to go, all is right. We took that same concept and we applied it to our menus”

Now the program’s Recipe Nutrition Analysis lists pies, cookies, cakes, eclairs, and banana splits as “red”foods ” highest in calories and lowest in vitamins and minerals.

The Army has plastered posters and placards in the dining area admonishing soldiers to do the right thing and eat “green”.

“All the foods are labeled throughout the serving line so that our soldiers would be informed as to making choices related to their performance goals,”Cable said.

For those readers who are wondering why the Army doesn’t just simply remove the red offending food items from the menu, Cable gives two reasons:

“One, we’ve got soldiers who have racehorse metabolisms that they needed every calorie I could get into them. And by taking off the red’ we just found that we couldn’t get enough calories in them”

Cable said the second reason for including “red”foods was “so they could learn what contributed positively and maybe what contributed negatively. Not to say that every food is bad, it’s just how they fit into your performance goals”

Cable gave a tour of the dining facilities at Ft. Jackson to First Lady Michelle Obama in January, and said the program started with basic combat training sites and now is used in all training facilities.

Most people pay little attention to food warning labels. Despite US restaurant chains with 20 or more retail stores now being required to display menu calorie counts for their food items, only a small percentage watch calories.

In a study by researchers at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, only 15% of customers used the calorie information as part of their decision when ordering food.

If the U.S. Amy doesn’t want soldiers to eat unhealthy food, then the Army shouldn’t serve it — it’s that simple. That means eliminating fried foods, and refined sugar, and replacing those foods with backed and broiled meats, steamed vegetables and desserts sweetened with natural honey.

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