Healthy Eating

Participants of Operation Holistic Warrior 2025 compare the nutrition facts of different brands of bread as part of a nutrition class during Operation Holistic Warrior 2025 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, March 21, 2025. 49 soldiers from 40 units are attending OHW 2025, an annual workshop dedicated to strengthening the Army Reserve fighting force across the five Holistic Health and Fitness domains: sleep readiness, mental readiness, spiritual readiness, nutritional readiness, and physical readiness.

Operation Holistic Warrior supports soldiers in adopting an H2F lifestyle, optimizing their performance both on and off the battlefield. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Zachary Potter)
UNITED STATES
04.18.2025

Story by Robert Hammer Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs/Military Health System

The Consortium for Health and Military Performance at the University of Uniformed Services, otherwise known as CHAMP, provides human performance resources for warfighters to maintain an optimal healthy lifestyle.

CHAMP features ways to achieve optimal readiness through a combination of psychological, social, nutritional, spiritual, and physical fitness tools—including a focus on one area that plays a critical connection between food and readiness: nutrition, which can have many benefits on mission readiness for service members and their families.

“We now know that body strength, weight, and overall functioning are the result of biological, psychological, and environmental factors,” said Dr. Marian Tanofsky-Kraff, director of Developmental Research Laboratory on Eating & Weight Behaviors for USU. “Good nutrition and physical activity can supplement physical and emotional health.”

Nutrition is vital to mission readiness. Food provides the human body with the continuous supply of energy it needs to function efficiently. This demand increases significantly when engaging in physical activities, whether for recreational, competitive, or duty purposes.

As one of the most important drivers of optimal physical and psychological wellbeing, “proper nutrition gives your brain the nutrients it needs to manage stress, regulate mood and emotions, maintain alertness and optimize physical and cognitive performance—all essential components of mission readiness,” according to military health experts. “Eating healthy keeps you sharp mentally and fueled physically. This is especially important when facing increased stress or high operational tempo.”

The CHAMP site maintains dozens of resources on nutrition basics and specialty topics to enhance warfighter performance during workouts, training, missions, and recovery.
Top 10 Nutrition Habits to be a Readiness CHAMP:

1. Know Your Why

The most important step in changing your nutrition habits is to clearly understand why you want that behavior to change.

CHAMP’s Strategic Habits for Better Nutrition worksheet helps guide you to optimal nutrition goals—and it includes how to stay motivated and committed in changing your habits. The form contains questions to assess your current nutritional intake, organized in three steps:

• Identify the “why” behind the behavior you want to change.

• Identify the nutrition habits you want to focus on. As your habits evolve and improve, revisit the worksheet to choose new habits to work on.

• Create your strategy. The worksheet contains ways to develop habits to promote nutritional fitness.

2. Value Whole Foods

Focus on whole foods, and fewer processed foods. Choose more plants, the more colors the better for foods with naturally occurring nutrients.

For more on plant-forward eating, and to view sample menus and food swaps see CHAMP’s Go for Green Power Your Menu with Plants toolkit.

3. Time Meals

Follow a regular eating pattern and plan your nutrition strategy ahead of time. Avoid skipping meals or going too long without eating. Fuel before, during, and after exercise.

4. Understand Macronutrients

Energy primarily comes from three macronutrients, and each plays a distinct role in sustaining performance and aiding recovery. Aim to get a balance of these nutrients each day.

The three main macronutrients are:

• Carbohydrates:
The body’s main energy…