Going Green

Friday 13 March 2009
1000

No, I haven’t turned into an environmentalist! Although I love the wilderness and consider myself a conservationist, I am absolutely *not* an environmentalist. The philosophy at the core of the environmental movement is deeply malevolent, and very destructive to man’s ability to live here on earth. The people who buy into it wholesale are seriously deluded, and the hard core “deep ecology” advocates are downright evil. But that’s a whole different discussion…

I am “going green” in another sense.

Yesterday we had a professional development session which consisted of a visit from the nutritionist assigned to the USARCENT surgeon’s office. He gave us a very interesting presentation on the effects of different types of foods on weight gain and weight loss, blood sugar levels , blood pressure, cholesterol, and overall health. It was mostly stuff I already knew in one form or another, but the presentation was very well put together and highlighted interrelationships that I had not thought of before. It’s also stuff I tend to forget or not think about, especially at certain key times (like when I’m choosing my food in the DFAC).

He had some very illuminating examples that drove home just what you are putting into your body when you eat certain foods. The most graphic one was a typical doughnut. He listed the ingredients and nutritional content of a donut, which were certainly clear, but didn’t have much emotional impact. So many grams of fat, so much sugar, etc. etc. Then he said “let’s make something with the same content from common household ingredients”. It seems that to make a doughnut-equivalent, you need the following: two slices of white bread, six tablespoons of Crisco (spread it on the bread) and I forget how many tablespoons of sugar (2 or 3, I think). There might have been one more thing. The main thing is that every time you go to eat a doughnut, you think about that Crisco sandwich. It should be enough to make you lose your appetite for the doughnut!

That particular example was irrelevant for me – I haven’t had a doughnut since I got here (we have Krispy Kreme, too!). But there were others, and the take-home lesson is to watch what you eat.

Now I have felt that I’ve been eating pretty well up until now. I only go to the DFAC once a day. For breakfast I just have two cereal packages (Special K with red berries) and an apple. I also have a couple OJ’s and later a large cup of coffee (Café Mocha). I go to the DFAC for either lunch or dinner, and eat whatever looks good. For the other meal I have several pieces of fruit – usually a couple of plums, a pear, and a peach, since I have an apple for breakfast. I also have a granola bar. That’s it. And yet my weight, although it has gone down a little lately, mainly has stayed pretty steady. What was I doing wrong?

Well, now I know. Lots of the food I was eating, even though it seemed healthy, was higher in fat content than I would have thought. And I was eating *way* too many calories. According to the nutritionist, we need 1200-1800 calories per day. I was actually getting lots more than that.

So how do I reduce? Well, it turns out that one of those cereal packs has 270 calories. So going from two to one is a no-brainer, as is cutting out the OJ, which is just empty calories with no nutritional value (I already take Vitamin C). I think the Café Mocha has to go, too, although I haven’t asked them yet how many calories that has. It has to be a lot, since they use whole milk and chocolate syrup…

My granola bars from the DFAC (PowerBars) are not nearly as healthy as I thought they were. They have 250 calories and a lot of sugar in them (22g) but only 5g of fiber. Apparently they are working on getting a different kind for the DFAC, but for now that’s what we have. And Hooah Bars turn out to be bad from this perspective, too. While they have lots of energy in them, they don’ t have the optimum balance from a heart health and anti-diabetic standpoint.

So I guess I’ll have to try to get some better ones. He said Clif bars are good, and also one called “Fiber One”). I found some on Amazon but didn’t order them yet. Naturally my fruit is OK.

So what does any of this have to do with “Going Green”?

Well, the Army is serious about good nutrition, so sometime in the past several months they have changed all the food labels in the DFAC to show the nutritional content of the food. I never bothered to read them – I was just annoyed because in order to fit all the information on, they had to reduce the size of the font on the main food name. So now I have to lean close and squint to just read what the item is. But along with the additional information they put something on there that I never paid any attention to – a little round sticker that is either green, amber, or red.

Green-Amber-Red is a very common system in the Army for reporting information on a briefing or status report. It gives a commander an easy quick reference to the status of a unit, weapon system, supply class, or operation. It’s just built into the culture – everybody understands it. So it’s natural that they use it in this context as well. As you might expect, green is “good” – eat foods coded green and you’ll lose weight and be healthier. Foods coded amber (well, yellow actually) are in between – you will at best maintain weight, and perhaps gain. Red is bad – high fat, low nutritional value. Eat foods coded red and you will gain weight.

So yesterday at lunch, right after this presentation, I went to the DFAC and paid attention to the colors on the labels for the first time ever. I ate only” green” foods. My first challenge was the entrée – there was only one “green” one, and I’d never had it before. It was something called Beef Yakisobe. Some kind of beef noodle dish. I took that and a large helping of mixed vegetables (as I usually do) which were also coded green. Then I went to the salad bar and had a salad (also green). Much to my dismay, when I got to the soup, the cream of mushroom was coded red. I love cream of mushroom soup, and have one or two bowls whenever it is served. I went and complained to the DFAC personnel that they had the wrong color label on it and asked them to put a green sticker on the little card, but they demurred. Oh well, no cream of mushroom soup for me. :-( But the Beef Yakisobe turned out to be delicious! That was a pleasant surprise.

We’ll see how long I can keep it up. But I know I weigh too much. Part of it is that I’ve gotten lazy since being here – at Arifjan I had to walk everyplace, but here I have a vehicle available to me so I usually drive. Last night I made good on a long-held intention and went for a walk around the camp perimeter after dinner. I could tell from how I felt afterwards that I have gotten un-used to walking. I had already made a commitment to stepping up my PT regimen, but now I realize that the simple act of walking everywhere was doing more for me than I realized, and stopping that has had a negative effect.

I guess that nutrition class was the wake-up call I needed. The Army has made it easy for me to pick healthy foods, if I will just pay attention. So I’ve “gone green” and will see how it affects me over the next few months.

Mood: Hungry
Music: BAP – Dreimohl Zehn Jahre