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FUELING PERFORMANCE

opportunity to choose more
green choices.”
The original Go for Green
program did not set goals, it
simply required dining facili-
ties to identify foods within
the three color-label categories.
“Now, they are required to do
better by their diners and offer
them a healthier selection,” she
said. “There’s always going to
be yellow and red, it’s not about
making everything in the din-
ing facility green. It’s about
offering more green items
than there were before, and
A placard designed for the Department of Defense’s encouraging consumption
original Go for Green program guided service mem- of those items and playing
bers to make healthy choices using green, yellow and down the red-coded items.”
red color-code labels to make healthy food choices by
limiting calories, fat and sodium. (Photo by Airman 1st A second major change
Class Grace Nichols, USAF, 19th Airlift Wing.) is Go for Green 2.0 intro-
duces a self-help aspect
military nutritional goals. that has to do with food
“We’ve ensured the color codes are based placement, or choice archi-
on the latest nutritional science, which the tecture, which highlights
original Go for Green was not truly based on,” healthier items by position-
said Jennifer Billington, project officer, Armed ing them upfront where ac-
Forces Recipe Service (AFRS) Joint Foodser- cess is easier compared with
vice and Engineering Team at the Combat the yellow and red options.
Feeding Directorate, Natick Soldier Research, “There is much research
Development and Engineering Center. about behavioral design,”
“Of course, nowadays we know more about Deuster said, “and where
promoting the consumption of healthy fat, you place food really does
versus just limiting, sort of, the generic total impact behavior, particu-
fat, as being a more healthy performance nu- larly within the military.
trition methodology,” Billington said. “There Service members have
were several limitations to the calorie limits maybe 10 minutes to eat or
and we really were not promoting healthy or quickly choose their foods;
performance dietary patterns just by focusing Go for Green 2.0 uses the same three color labels as the they’re following pat-
on calories alone. We’re finding we’re able original when it arrived in dining facilities beginning in terns. We want to ensure
to get so many more healthy foods, actually 2008, but delivers a more consistent nutritional message the green-coded items are
healthy and performance-promoting foods as dietitians code each centrally rather than making the part of their usual traffic
decision at the dining facility. (Photo by Senior Airman
coding green under the new criteria. And, Quay Drawdy, USAF. 18th Wing Public Affairs.) patterns, and in the most
those diet-type foods are not getting a pass prominent and most visible
just because they are low-calorie; those won’t code as well areas compared with the red-coded items, which we really
because of the artificial nature of their ingredients.” want to be less accessible and harder to find.”
Dining facilities also must meet menu-coding goals for Choice architecture does not limit or remove options.
the overall number of green items on a menu cycle, as well “There’s always going to be burgers, pizza and those comfort
as availability targets per dining period. Overall, at least food go-to options,” she said. “But we want to make sure
30 percent of items available through a menu cycle must we’re highlighting the high-performance type foods. This
be coded green. By meal, for example, lunch must have at is really built around the more nutritionally sound menu.”
least one green entrée and no more than one that is labeled
red. There are similar requirements for the salad bar and REVISION TEAM
other specialty stations. A team of dietitians, with Billington at Natick and Beth
“It doesn’t do anybody any good to just know that it’s Moylan at CHAMP as leads, began work about three years
yellow and red if all the choices are yellow and red,” Bil- ago to revise the original Go for Green and realized that
lington said. “There has to be a sufficient number of green the criteria used to determine which color-code label is
choices to actually make a difference and to give them the applied to the menu items served to service members in
14 GOVERNMENT FOOD SERVICE • APRIL 2018