‘Nutrition is out of our control’: soldiers’ perceptions of their local food environment

Abstract

Objective:To explore the perceptions of soldiers participating in a US Army Office of The Surgeon General’s worksite health promotion programme (WHPP) on the local food environment within their campus-style workplace.Design:Focus groups were conducted to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of the WHPP implementation. Further exploration of focus group data through thematic analysis focused on perceived contributions of the military campus-style food environment to soldiers’ nutrition behaviours.Setting:Three US Army installations located in the continental USA.Participants:Active duty soldiers (n 366) participating in one of the fifty-eight focus groups.Results:Soldiers shared a common belief of self-discipline and personal responsibility as the foothold to nutrition behaviour change. Soldiers described aspects of the military campus-style food environment as factors impeding achievement of optimal nutrition. Collectively, soldiers perceived the proximity and density of fast-food restaurants, lack of healthy alternatives on the installation and the cost of healthy food as inhibitors to choosing healthy foods. Overwhelmingly, soldiers also perceived time constraints as a factor contributing to unhealthy food choices.Conclusions:Although nutrition behaviour is individually driven, soldiers perceived the military campus-style food environment inhibits healthy decision making. Nutrition programming in military WHPP must integrate food environment changes to improve soldiers’ nutrition behaviour outcomes. Applicable to the military, food choice behaviour studies suggest environmental changes must be appealing to young adults. Considerations for environmental changes should include an increased portion size for healthy options, broadened use of soldiers’ daily food allowances on local produce and increased availability of grab-and-go options.

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

“…Notably, HEI scores for both those who did and did not report weight cycling received an "F" for how closely dietary intakes conformed to the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, with totals scores being 59.1(10.3) and 58.7(10.8), respectively. Poor diet quality among Soldiers is consistent with recent studies that have reported Soldier eating patterns do not provide optimal energy availability, adequate macronutrient distribution or sufficient micronutrients when compared to sports nutrition guidelines or Military Dietary Reference Intakes 21,26,49 . Soldiers with more optimal diet quality are more likely to have more desirable body composition, APFT scores, and emotional fitness scores 19 .…”

“…This Accepted manuscript exposure may inadvertently set Soldiers on a trajectory by which they must adopt weight management behaviors to compensate for these habits. In support, military personnel from various ranks have acknowledged that environmental barriers not only hinder behavior changes but make application of healthy nutrition behaviors seem unrealistic 26 . The current military eating environment and social norms also do not acknowledge the multitude of factors that impact eating behaviors beyond the individual, such as environment and psychosocial influences 26,48 .…”

“…Although the prevalence of overweight and obesity is lower among service members compared to civilian populations, rates among US military personnel demonstrate a continuing rise over the last two decades 18,25 and current estimates indicate that 17% of US military personnel have a BMI that classifies them as having obesity 25 . Recent findings have demonstrated that soldiers of all ranks report experiencing several barriers within the Army eating environment that restrict behavior change and the ability to make healthy choices 26 .…”

“…Common barriers include lack of access to nutritious options, excess exposure to fast food, limited time to eat meals or prepare healthy foods, time constraints that promote fast eating, and increased exposure to stress/trauma compared to the civilian population 26,27 . Thus, overweight and obesity are increasingly common in U.S. military personnel, and identification of contributing factors is needed to inform development of prevention strategies.…”

A Combined Multidisciplinary Intervention for Health Promotion in the Workplace: A Pilot Study

“…); difficulty storing food (fridge, cupboards, etc. ); and difficulty retrieving nutritional information in canteens and vending machines [ 27 , 28 ]. There is strong evidence that interventions in the workplace are effective both for fostering the consumption of fruit, vegetables, and fiber-rich foods and for decreasing the amount of fat intake among adults [ 6 ].…”