Suboptimal Nutritional Characteristics in Male and Female Soldiers Compared to Sports Nutrition Guidelines

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the nutrient intake of male and female Soldiers in the 101 st Airborne Division (Air Assault) compared to sports nutrition standards for athletes, and to identify suboptimal eating characteristics that may impair physical performance and jeopardize military readiness. Male and female Soldiers from the 101 st Airborne Division (Air Assault) completed a 24-hour dietary recall and nutrition history questionnaire before anthropometric and body composition measurements were taken. Compared to sports nutrition guidelines, Soldiers of the 101 st under consume carbohydrates (males: 3.9 ± 2.0 vs. 5.0 g/kg, p < 0.001; females: 4.0 ± 2.1 vs. 5.0 g/kg, p = 0.001), male Soldiers eat too much fat (32.4% of kcal vs. <30% of kcal, p = 0.000) and saturated fat (males: 10.5 ± 3.9% of kcal vs. 10.0% of kcal, p = 0.044), and both males and females follow a meal pattern that may not optimize energy availability throughout the day. Eating too much fat and under fueling carbohydrate may negatively impact the adaptations to physical training and compromise overall health. Although Soldiers continue to participate in arduous training programs, future research should be aimed at determining the energy and macronutrient needs to fuel and recover from specific types of military training.

Diet Macronutrient Composition, Physical Activity, and Body Composition in Soldiers During 6 Months Deployment

“…According to MDRI soldiers should consume carbohydrates < 494 g/d in operational environment (15) when mean carbohydrate intake remained only 242-269 g/d in this study. For soldiers carbohydrates are the main energy substrate for physical and military training and together with adequate energy intake they are essential for recovery (16). The average fat intake followed the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations and partly the MDRIs, where fat intake is recommended ≤ 35 E% (14,15).…”

Reproductive dysfunction and associated pathology in women undergoing military training

“…The authors did not assess menstrual dysfunction, ghrelin or leptin, and further research is indicated (Table 3). 72 Energy deficit was also demonstrated in soldiers in barracks, using 24-hour recall in 324 soldiers of 101st Airborne division by Beals et al 74 Just 15% of males and 13% of females admitted eating the recommended amount of carbohydrate, with no significant differences between groups. However as the authors acknowledge, their non-automated, single-interview 24-hour recall method is likely to have contributed to under-reporting 75…”

Dietary Assessment Methods in Military and Veteran Populations: A Scoping Review

“…The continent most frequently studying the dietary intake of their military and veterans was North America. All North American sudies were conducted in the USA, with almost two thirds (n = 57, 64%) of included studies originating from this country [6,7,20,24,25,29,30,32,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]46,49,[51][52][53][54][55][58][59][60][62][63][64][65][66]68,74,[77][78][79][80]82,83,88,89,[91][92][93][94][95][97][98][99][100...…”

“…One study did not report on participant numbers [45]. Forty-five of the 89 studies included male personnel (51%) [ The military population most frequently studied, in descending order, was the army with n = 48 (54%) [2,6,7,[21][22][23][24][29][30][31][32]34,35,[37][38][39][40][43][44][45][46][47][48][50][51][52][53][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]66,[70][71][72][73]76,77,82,84,88,89], followed by veterans n = 18 (20%) [20,[90][91]…”