POWER YOUR PLATE: Commissaries help customers shape eating plan to help improve their health, wellness

FORT LEE, Va. – March is National Nutrition Month and this year’s slogan, “Personalize Your Plate,” highlights that the approach to a healthy lifestyle should be as individualized as the person seeking to make positive nutritional changes. 

Everyone is unique – different body types, goals and tastes. Even with that diversity, the commissary offers resources that can help everyone take a step in the right direction when it comes to making informed food choices for a unique, nutritious eating plan.

Whether you need help with preparing meals, planning menus or varying your diet, your commissary offers tools and resources to help you shape a nutritious eating plan that is uniquely you.

Here is exactly how your commissary can help:

Preparing meals:

•     Recipes – The Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) is continually adding new healthy recipes to commissaries.com, ensuring military families have the tools they need to improve the nutrition quality of their diet. There are even recipes from celebrity chef Robert Irvine, who develops delicious, nutritious recipes just for commissary customers. Visit the recipes link and filter by clicking “dietitian-approved.”

• Recipe posters – Dietitian-approved recipe posters are displayed in stores alongside the products needed to prepare the recipe. Pull out your phone, take a photo of the poster, fill your cart with the ingredients – offered at significant savings – and you are immediately ready for a nutritious home-cooked meal.

• Thinking Outside the Box recipes – Find a list of no-fuss entrées featured on commissaries.com. These Thinking Outside the Box recipes are designed to minimize preparation time with quick and easy meal solutions featuring ingredients that will save you money at your commissary. It features links to quick-prep recipes using a slow cooker, microwave or pressure cooker; make-ahead freezer meals; one skillet meals and entrees using prepared protein like rotisserie chicken and canned tuna. Make sure to take a peek at the sales flyer which shows a featured recipe and an extra 20 percent off on the recipe ingredients.

Planning meals:

• Planning resources – There are several planning resources available for download on commissaries.com. No Fuss Entrees offers a selection of quick-prep recipes; the dietitian-approved menu plan suggests a full month menu of nutritious meals with printable weekly commissary shopping lists; the dietitian-approved menu planner provides a list of nutritious entrees, sides and desserts, all linked to the recipes, so you can simply pick and choose to create your menu and a weekly meal plan worksheet to help you plan your weekly menu, shop your pantry and develop a detailed shopping list sorted by food category to save you time during your commissary trip. There is even a holiday meal planner, complete with menu, commissary shopping list, a preparation game plan and recipe options for leftovers.

• Dietitian-approved fueling stations – A lack of planning or time does not have to hijack your nutritious eating plan. Select commissaries offer dietitian-approved fueling stations, grab and go sections filled with dietitian-approved snacks, salads and sandwiches offering commissary customers a great alternative to the fast food drive-through.

Varying Your Diet:

• Weekly sales flyer – The sales flyer not only offers information on all the savings available to the commissary patron, it can also help enhance the variety of your diet. Each sales flyer features a vegetable or fruit from the produce department, offering information on how to select and store the item along with nutrition information and other background facts. A dietitian-approved recipe featuring the item is included to make it easy to add that produce item to your weekly menu.

• Dietitian-Approved Thumb (DAT) Program – Choosing nutrient-rich foods from your commissary just got a whole lot easier with the DAT Program, a relaunch of the Nutrition Guide Program. DAT is a point-of-purchase nutrition identification program that makes it easier for shoppers to find products based on many nutrition attributes just by looking for the DAT logo tag on the shelves. With a glance, customers will know if the foods on the shelves will build on their nutritious eating plan and will be able to try new items knowing that they will enhance a nutritious diet.

               Commissary patrons have the confidence of knowing all these resources are backed by a registered dietitian. These and more resources located on commissaries.com under the Healthy Living tab help each commissary customer tailor a unique nutritious eating plan. 

-DeCA-

About DeCA: The Defense Commissary Agency operates a worldwide chain of commissaries providing groceries to military personnel, retirees and their families in a safe and secure shopping environment. Commissaries provide a military benefit, saving authorized patrons thousands of dollars annually on their purchases compared to similar products at commercial retailers. The discounted prices include a 5-percent surcharge, which covers the costs of building new commissaries and modernizing existing ones. A core military family support element, and a valued part of military pay and benefits, commissaries contribute to family readiness, enhance the quality of life for America’s military and their families, and help recruit and retain the best and brightest men and women to serve their country.