Military experience can influence Women's eating habits

Abstract

Background. Disordered eating, ranging from occasional binge eating or restriction to behaviors associated with eating disorder diagnoses, is common among military personnel and veterans. However, there is little information on how military service affects eating habits. Objective. To describe possible pathways between military service and disordered eating among women veterans, a high risk group. Materials and Methods. Twenty women veterans who reported changing eating habits in response to stress participated in audio-recorded focus groups or dyadic interviews between April 2013 and October 2014. We used thematic analysis of transcripts to identify and understand women’s self-reported eating habits before, during, and after military service. Results. Participants reported entering the military with varied eating habits, but little disordered eating. Participants described several ways military environments affected eating habits, for example, by promoting fast, irregular, binge-like eating and disrupting the reward value of food. Participants believed military-related stressors, which were often related to gender, also affected eating habits. Such stressors included military sexual trauma and the need to meet military weight requirements in general and after giving birth. Participants also reported that poor eating habits continued after military service, often because they remained under stress. Conclusions. For some women, military service can result in socialization to poor eating habits, which when combined with exposure to stressors can lead to disordered eating. Additional research is needed, including work to understand possible benefits associated with providing support in relation to military weight requirements and the transition out of military service. Given the unique experiences of women in the military, future work could also focus on health services surrounding pregnancy-related weight change and the stress associated with being a woman in predominantly male military environments.

Weight management behaviours mediate the relationship between weight cycling, BMI and diet quality among US Army Soldiers

“…Potential interventions might include holistic initiatives that promote sustainable weight loss and healthy weight maintenance. For example, exposure to an Army eating environment, which is often characterized by limited and high cost nutrient dense items, abundance of fast foods or hyper palatable foods, time constraints, and stress 16,27,33,47 early in a Soldier's career may foster the development of undesirable eating behaviors, such as fast eating and eating irrespective of hunger and fullness cues 16,33 . This Accepted manuscript exposure may inadvertently set Soldiers on a trajectory by which they must adopt weight management behaviors to compensate for these habits.…”

“…IP address: 44.224.250.200, on 13 Sep 2021 at 01:06:19, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000711452100338X Accepted manuscript veterans are at increased risk for weight cycling compared to civilians, 10,12,16 and mean BMI of Soldiers has increased over the past 10 years with BMI trajectories suggestive of weight cycling apparent in the population 18 . Soldiers who show BMI fluctuations indicative of weight cycling have a higher incidence of failing body composition standards and are more likely to show a trajectory of weight gain versus weight stability 18 .…”

Periodontal Disease : A Rise in Prevalence in Military Troops Penyakit Periodontal

“…During deployment or other stressful conditions, dietary habit may change and leads military members to suffer from nutrition deficiency and dehydration. 70 Since the oral epithelium relies on micronutrients and hydration to continually performs high rate of cellular turnover, these deficiencies can affect oral health by preventing repairing and renewing itself. 71 These conditions may be manifestated in oral cavity as glossitis, angular cheilitis, stomatitis and gingivitis.…”

Hidden Veterans: A Review of the Literature on Women Veterans in Contemporary Society

“…Research exploring the broader implications for those who have been exposed to MST indicates that there will be a legacy of longterm physical and mental health difficulties as a consequence (Decker, Rosenheck, Tsai, Hoff, & Harpaz-Rotem, 2013;Dichter & True, 2015;Kelly et al, 2008). Evidence is already suggesting that women exposed to MST are more likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Burkhart & Hogan, 2015), depression (Hiraoka, Cook, Bivona, Meyer, & Morissette, 2016), suicidal thoughts (Gutierrez et al, 2013), and eating disorders (Breland, Donalson, Nevedal, Dinh, & Maguen, 2017). This is an alarming indication of the overall impact of MST, but only exposes the impact for those who seek help within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) care system (Wolff & Mills, 2016).…”