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military dining facilities and galleys had never been tested the availability of more-healthful items on the menu. “So,
on a large number of the recipes. it’s really a multi-component program, and it’s based on
“And so, we started playing around with the criteria the science of health promotion and behavior change,”
and applying them to recipes,” Billington said. “Many of Deuster said.
us are dietitians, so we had a sense of where the recipes
should fall, and where we would envision them coding if NUTRITIONAL MESSAGE
they should be coded green, yellow or red.” In revising Go for Green, the dietitians were motivated
Their concern was that the original criteria gave a mis- to have the color-code criteria deliver a positive nutritional
leading nutritional message by placing too much weight message with the green label promoting nutrient-dense
on limiting a few specific dietary measures. Many items foods that should be eaten regularly while cautioning with
being coded with a green label had little or no nutritional yellow and red on items to choose sparingly.
value, which directed service members toward consuming The team that revised Go for Green included AFRS, which
empty calories that fit within the criteria and away from develops, revises and maintains the recipes that are the
more healthful options. backbone of garrison food service throughout the military;
“We weren’t really happy with where recipes were cod- the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine
ing,” Billington said. “Wrong messages were being sent, (USARIEM); and the Consortium for Health and Military
foods with empty calories were being promoted essentially Performance (CHAMP), a center at the Uniformed Services
by being coded green, and then things that are nutrient University (USU). CHAMP provides expertise in nutrition,
dense were being coded yellow or red because it was just marketing, health promotion campaigns and program man-
based on total fat and calories at the time, and sodium.” agement while AFRS contributes subject matter expertise
Considering the high level of activity among military on nutrient analysis to make sure the revised Go for Green
members, they need calories to be able to sustain their criteria are met. The team also included many other groups
physical and mental efforts. “Quality is what we really want across the DoD from all branches of military service.
to push, that’s certainly one of the areas that became more “Initially, we just got involved to help build the new
important,” Deuster said. “We want to have performance criteria,” Billington said. “But the synergy between the exper-
nutrition, not weight-loss nutrition.” tise in my department, with our food service and nutrition
Go for Green 2.0 aims to highlight foods that are nu- background, and what Beth [Moylan] does at CHAMP with
trient dense while the criteria of the previous version was more of the programs’ development, public health back-
based on a 2,000-calorie diet that identified foods as green ground, just worked really well. And so, we’ve continued
even though it offered little in the way of nutritional value. working together beyond just the criteria development for
“That’s very limiting in our population,” Billington said. the past few years.”
“Certainly there are warfighters who need to limit their All Armed Forces Recipe Service recipes are coded and,
calories that are on weight-restricted diets, but that’s not along with the other Go for Green materials, are available
the bulk of our population. We’re going to have people on the Human Performance Resource Center website, which
who do have lower-calorie needs, but we’re going to have is home to USU’s CHAMP. “The coding piece is very tightly
much-higher calorie needs. Basing all the coding off of controlled now,” Billington said. “Coders need to be trained
ranges to fit within a 2,000-calorie limit really doesn’t serve and certified in coding, there’s a test people who take that
our population well at all.” training have to pass in order to get their certificate that
Another revision of the criteria pulled sodium out of the says they can code.”
color-coding system. Instead, sodium content is represented This training prepares coders to be responsible to evalu-
by a separate educational symbol for those who would like ate non-AFRS recipes, which is anything that is used only
to know more about their intake level or for those who do locally, and ready-to-use items, and apply the appropriate
need to follow a sodium-restricted diet. color-label. “Coding can’t just be done by anybody, there
“Our specific population, active-duty service members, needs to be that training and certification,” she said.
do not need to restrict sodium,” according to Deuster. “It For a dining facility that wants to implement Go for
was important that sodium be pulled apart from the color Green 2.0, but lacks someone qualified to color code the
code because a food that is nutrient-dense can still have a menu items, the simplest solution is to exclusively follow
moderate amount of sodium.” AFRS recipes. Dining facilities are not advised to modify
Another component of Go for Green 2.0 is Moylan and AFRS recipes without having someone qualified to reanalyze
Billington developed a marketing and education campaign and recode it consistent with the Go for Green 2.0 criteria.
that reinforces the message and makes the dining facility a All recipes a dining facility uses, whether AFRS or some
tool for educating service members about the role of food other, should be standardized to the Go for Green crite-
choices and nutrition in optimizing performance in terms ria and be evaluated by someone familiar with nutrient
of cognitive and physical function. content analysis software. Most importantly, the team
The marketing campaign stresses that nutrition is very advises that recipes be followed exactly as written because
relevant to the day-to-day experience of the service members modifications can result in changes in the Go for Green
in the dining facility while choosing what to eat. It calls color-code label.
attention to green-coded items with signs that promote —GFS
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