ecdd1143 - You Are What You Eat

by: Brenda Zanin, contributing writer for the Pony Express, RCMP's National News Magazine, June 1998

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES

Response - Enforce the Law: Skills [Fitness and Lifestlyle]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Someone once said that an army marches on its stomach, and the saying could apply to Mounties too, according to Joanne Atkins, nutritionist for the RCMP Training Academy. Her job is to design menus and plan meals that will meet the needs of hundreds of cadets, as well as course participants, who descend on the mess three times a day, seven days a week.

"The consequences of a poor diet are poor performance and an inability to concentrate," says Atkins, who has been at the Academy for over seven years. "A poor diet can result in colds and illnesses, and a person's exercise performance also suffers."

But with the Academy's varied, attractive and nutritious meals, cadets would almost have to be deliberately negligent to exercise poor dietary habits.

"We make sure we offer a well-balanced diet that is low in fat and follows the Canada Food Guide," Atkins says. "We encourage people to limit their fat intake to 30 per cent of daily calories, and to get approximately 20 per cent of their intake from protein and 50 per cent from carbohydrates. Part of my role is to educate the staff to use low fat cooking methods, providing lean, healthy food choices."

At one time, cooks greased the mess grills with bacon fat and butter was an ingredient in all the desserts, Atkins says with a shudder. Meat portions, a frequent menu item, weighed eight ounces and appeared on both lunch and dinner menus. Now, portion size for red meat is down in the four to six ounce range, and cooks use non-stick spray on the grill. Desserts now have polyunsaturated fat in limited quantities and even in the dead of winter, diners can select fresh fruit as a healthy dessert alternative.

"We have to provide variety," Atkins adds, but admits with a laugh that they might see "riots" if they didn't offer some "junk food." like the occasional hot dog -- but there's always a tofu weiner alternate for the ever-increasing vegetarian set.

Each new troop at the Academy tours the food services facilities and gets a pep talk about healthy eating. To give cadets some input into menu choices, each troop has a representative who meets regularly with food services staff.

Atkins has also worked with the physical training instructors to provide a nutrition component to the course. "The PT staff and I discourage cadets from using protein supplements," she says, and on the issue of supplying recovery drinks for athletes: "We stay away from that. They're not needed."

Helping cadets develop a healthier lifestyle is a big part of Atkins' job, with one-on-one counselling. "I see quite a few cadets for weight loss, and they're usually pretty motivated. I also see some who have difficulty maintaining their weight with their high activity level. But if they have to gain weight they should do it in a healthy way by increasing carbohydrates and proteins, maintaining a balanced diet overall."

In the field, when police officers face stress and an irregular schedule, it's a lot harder to maintain good nutrition, but it's not impossible. For members who must eat on the fly, Joanne Atkins, nutritionist for the RCMP Training Academy, recommends fat-conscious submarine sandwiches instead of hamburgers with the works; bagels instead of donuts; fruit instead of cake, and, when relaxing at home, raw vegetables or plain popcorn instead of chips and pop. And, just to ensure a healthy vitamin intake, "a multivitamin doesn't hurt anybody," she says.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT