Bring
on the balance with probiotics
By
Maj. Karen E. Fauber, DeCA dietitian
FORT LEE
,
Va.
– Do you suffer from irritable bowel syndrome or IBS, a
condition causing distress and discomfort, not to mention
embarrassment at times? If so, you are not alone: As an
estimated 45 million Americans, or about as many as one in five
people, have IBS. During IBS awareness month in April, DeCA
wants you to know that your local commissary has products that
contain probiotics, which help to bring on the balance in your
digestive system.
Growing evidence shows that foods with probiotics added to them,
and those high in fiber, can help your digestive system to work
like clockwork. There is hope for those that have IBS as it can
be managed with making healthy lifestyle changes including
stress management and diet.
What
is IBS?
IBS is one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders as seen
by doctors. It is described as a brain gut condition that
triggers these symptoms:
·
Abdominal pain or cramping
·
A bloated feeling
·
Gas
·
Diarrhea or constipation
If you are concerned that you have IBS, see your doctor and get
a physical exam. Lab tests can be done to rule out other
digestive problems.
One way to help to bring on the balance to your diet is to pay
careful attention to what you eat. Your commissary has all the
items that can help keep your digestive system in working order.
Look for yogurt and yogurt drinks that contain Bifidus
Regularis, a probiotic or good bacteria. Enjoy the health
benefits of calcium, protein and the probiotic in these foods
and others in your commissary at savings of 30 percent or more.
For a little variety with that yogurt, try making a fruit
smoothie to delight your taste buds. Try this fruit smoothie
recipe: one 8-ounce cup yogurt with Bifidus Regularis, one-half
cup low-fat milk and one cup strawberries. Add the three
ingredients to a blender, blend it up, and enjoy! You can also
add other fruit in place of the strawberries.
Go
for the fiber
·
Add one-half cup high fiber (more than 9 grams per serving)
cereal to your yogurt to help you on your way to the 25 to 35
grams of fiber needed daily.
·
Have vegetables with lunch and dinner like broccoli, carrots,
spinach and others.
·
Eat bread with 3 grams of fiber or more per serving.
Help your gut get the good stuff and bring on the balance by
choosing foods that are good for you today while in your
commissary. IBS can be successfully managed so that you can
enjoy life.
See you in the commissary!
For more information about healthy food choices and other
nutrition topics, visit Ask the Dietitian at http://www.commissaries.com
and post your questions on the DeCA
Dietitian Forum and be sure to look for other useful
information in The Dietitian’s
Voice archive.
Commissaries
highlighting food safety
By
Kevin Robinson, DECA
FORT LEE, Va. – The Defense
Commissary Agency considers food safety such a priority
that its 259 stores will be
highlighting this message throughout the month of April.
The April campaign is part of DeCA’s yearlong
efforts to demonstrate what the commissary does to be a
source of safe food, said Rick Page, DeCA acting director
and a staunch advocate of food safety throughout his three
decades as a military grocer.
“Recent events in food borne illness outbreaks
have caused many consumers to wonder if their food supply
is safe,” Page said. “Our customers can be confident
that we employ higher standards of safety and security to
protect the food sold in commissaries.
“Nationwide, food safety awareness is observed in
September,” he added. “However, DeCA’s emphasis on
food safety is such that we want to do this twice a year
– it’s that important.”
During April, customers will learn more about how
commissary products are safeguarded during delivery to the
store. Also, DeCA will announce its participation in Be
Food Safe, a government program involving a group of
nearly 30 retail grocery chains, to help educate consumers
about the four steps of preventing food borne illnesses in
the kitchen: cleaning, separating, cooking and chilling
foods. Customers will begin seeing Be Food Safe posters in
the stores and information linked to DeCA’s Food Safety
Web page at Commissaries.com.
These measures and more are all part of DeCA’s daily
vigilance to help safeguard the products sold in its
commissaries, said Army Col. Perry Chumley, DeCA’s top
food safety officer.
In
the store, DeCA has a group of employees who are trained
to examine products upon delivery, looking for any
evidence of issues such as improper temperature during
transport; condition of packaging materials; cleanliness
of the carrier; and product exposure to any potentially
harmful elements. As products arrive to the store, they
are subject to inspection, as necessary, by military food
inspectors, from both Air Force Public Health and Army
Veterinary Service. In situations involving higher threat
levels, DeCA works with installation security officials to
check delivery vehicles before they enter a base.
“What we do in food safety goes well beyond
anything you’d experience in the commercial sector,”
Chumley said. “Our store employees and the military food
safety inspectors are part of a combined effort to ensure
that we deliver a quality commissary benefit that is safe
and secure.”
‘Be
Food Safe’ helps prevent foodborne illnesses
By
Kevin Robinson, DECA
FORT LEE
,
Va.
–Clean, separate, cook and chill: A new twist on an old
message will be rolling out to commissary customers as
part of Be Food Safe, a new government-sponsored program
to help prevent food borne illnesses in the home.
Be
Food Safe brings the Defense Commissary Agency and 27
commercial retail grocery chains together in participating
with the Partnership for Food Safety Education and its
government liaisons – the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The goal is to
help consumers become more aware of proper food-handling
measures in the home, said Rick Page, DeCA’s acting
director.
“If
you take a moment to practice Be Food Safe’s four simple
guidelines and read the instructions on the product label,
you can dramatically reduce your chances of getting a
foodborne illness,” Page said. “When our customers
visit any of our stores or the DeCA Web site, Commissaries.com,
they will see information to help them keep their food
safe.”
To
help introduce this yearlong campaign to its customers,
DeCA will
begin to unveil a series of posters, flyers, circular ads
and informational brochures that echo the four core food
safety practices of “clean, separate, cook and
chill”:
·
Clean
– Frequent
cleaning can reduce spread of bacteria on hands, cutting
boards, knives and kitchen countertops. Always wash hands
with warm water and soap for 20 seconds before and after
handling food.
·
Separate
– To
avoid cross-contamination by bacteria, keep raw meat,
poultry and seafood and their juices away from
ready-to-eat foods.
·
Cook
–
Improper heating and preparation can allow bacteria to
survive. Use a thermometer to ensure food is safely
prepared according to the product’s cooking
instructions.
·
Chill
– By
chilling food properly, you can reduce the risk
of food borne illness. Bacteria spread fastest at
temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
The
lessons of Be Food Safe are not new, said Col. Perry
Chumley, DeCA’s director public health, safety and
security. However, what is new is the public’s growing
concern about food safety.
“A growing number of people view food-related
illness as a serious threat to their health,” he said.
“Be Food Safe reinforces information we have promoted
all along such as reading the warning labels that show you
how to safely cook your meat products.”
Chumley also said that throughout the year customers will
periodically see commissaries demonstrating proper
food-handling steps. Customers can learn more about the Be
Food Safe by visiting http:/commissaries.com.
DeCA
announces Best Commissary nominees
By Kevin Robinson, DECA
FORT
LEE, Va. – DeCA has announced this year’s nominees for its
Best Commissary awards. Nominees in their respective
categories are:
·
Scott Air Force Base, Ill., best superstore
·
Fort Lewis, Wash., best superstore
·
Fort Huachuca, Ariz., best large commissary, United States
·
Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., best large
commissary, USA
·
Naval Air Station Barbers Point, Hawaii, best small
commissary, USA
·
Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., best small commissary, United
States
·
Camp Humphreys, South Korea, best large commissary, overseas
·
Schweinfurt, Germany, best large commissary, overseas
·
Camp Kure, Japan, best small commissary, overseas
·
Izmir Air Station, Turkey, best small commissary, overseas
These
annual awards recognize overall excellence in commissary
operations and service. Selection of nominees is highly
competitive and is based on operation, performance and
accountability.
This
year’s 10 finalists are subject to an unannounced inspection
of their entire operation by the DeCA Inspector General’s
office and an unannounced command visit.
Winners
will receive their awards at the DeCA/American Logistics
Association 2007 Training Event and Conference to be held in
Richmond, Va., in April.
Operation
"Touch
of Home"
Commissary
goods go down range
Adapted by Bonnie Powell,
from an article
by Gerri Young, DeCA European Region Public Affairs
FORT LEE, Va. - Operation Touch of Home. It
may sound like a marketing cliché, but the Defense Commissary
Agency is literally providing a "touch of home" to
members of the armed services deployed overseas.
While commissaries might not be the most
visible suppliers of troops down range, many of those cookies,
bottles of hot sauce and zip-lock bags in down-range exchanges
made the trip across the ocean and into Bahrain, Kuwait, and
aboard Navy ships, thanks to support from DeCA Europe's
central distribution centers.
"DeCA has a very real mission to the men
and women called to serve during conflicts, as well as to
their families at home," said DeCA Director Maj. Gen.
Michael P. Wiedemer. "And we're ready to serve them by
making sure they have a steady supply of the familiar products
that can help make their time away from home as comfortable as
possible." DeCA's European Region has been filling large
grocery orders, over 129,000 cases through March 21, for the
Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) and Navy ship
stores. Those products are ultimately finding their way into
the hands of U.S. service members down range.
DeCA Europe buyers like Gerlinde Smith are
responsible for managing most of the line items being ordered
for the AAFES main store at Camp Doha, Kuwait. "The
orders cover everything from hot sauce to ham to chewing gum
and lots of things in between," said Smith. What's most
in demand? There are hundreds of items on the deployed service
member's shopping list, but canned meats such as chicken,
sardines and sausages; jerky; crackers; fruit cups; snack
mixes; nuts; gum; a variety of candies, puddings, cookies,
chips, granola bars, pastries; coffee, sugar, and drink mixes
are among the most wanted. "We've been increasing our
orders on items of interest to down-range customers,"
said DeCA's Steve Armbruster, chief of the European Region's
merchandising branch. "And while we have plenty of
merchandise in the normal delivery pipeline, it can't get here
fast enough."
The additional demand, coupled with regular
commissary shopping by thousands of families stationed in
Europe, recently necessitated a high priority grocery order
and the airlift of 32,000 cases of grocery items to resupply
DeCA's European central distribution centers.
This unusual aspect of "Operation Touch of
Home" delivered 170 tons of groceries to Germany in less
than two weeks by air, rather than the normal 40 days by sea.
"Everyone has been very proactive, from the buyers to the
suppliers" said Donna Starkus-Ward, manager of CONUS
distribution and overseas support. Although many suppliers and
manufacturers require several weeks' notice, most pulled
together huge orders in less than a week. "This is all
pretty phenomenal," said Arlene Ripp, chief of DeCA's
traffic support division. Less than a week after the order was
given, more than 13 truckloads of product were delivered to a
major airport for airlift to Germany. Since product didn't
arrive all at once at MDV Nash Finch, one of DeCA's
distributors, said Ripp, "we didn't wait for a full load.
We shipped product as it was ready to move."
Once the product touched down in Europe, it
was trucked to one of DeCA Europe's central distribution
centers in Germany. "Between that and the larger orders
by our buyers," said Armbruster, "we'll be able to
continue to take good care of the troops, and the families at
all our European bases." DeCA's European Region Director
Bonnie Kanitz recently visited the USAREUR (U.S. Army Europe)
deputy commander and made him an offer. "I told him we
are more than just the grocery store for the families left
behind. I read all the down-range articles and letters from
troops and I wanted the general to know that DeCA Europe is
ready and able to get the troops whatever products we carry -
and put them where they need them."
Stories of increased commissary support to the
troops are varied. The 1,000-bed hospital ship USNS Comfort
received an order of bouillon cubes and a variety of instant
beverages, health drinks and soup - all for patients with jaw
injuries, should the need arise. At Rota, Spain, Chris Gomez,
store administrator, is well-known to seagoing customers like
the USNS Big Horn, a supply and refueling vessel. Rerouted to
another destination instead of going home, the ship was
running low on items it had been unable to get elsewhere. With
a very short window to restock, the supply officer aboard the
Big Horn e-mailed Gomez at the Rota commissary asking to buy
over a thousand pounds of fresh produce, 120 pounds of bread
flour and a quantity of frozen turkeys. When the ship pulled
in, the order was waiting.
An emergency order of 18,000 granola bars for
deploying troops from Vicenza, Italy, was filled with just one
day's notice through the commissary in Aviano, Italy. The
Ansbach, Germany, commissary filled an order from the local
military health clinic for 37,800 individual resealable
sandwich bags to be used in the small pox inoculation process.
Additional savings over normal commissary prices were provided
through coupons. "These efforts represent just a few of
the many ways DeCA provides increased support to members of
the armed services," said Wiedemer. "It's a great
reminder that we are there for our customers - every time,
every place."
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