Building a Culture of Health Through Leader-Inspired Nutrition

The balance of operational readiness and maintaining a healthy recruitment force presents increasing challenges within the DoD. Chronic preventable diseases, such as overweight and obesity, along with musculoskeletal injuries, are threats to recruitment and retention. Novel approaches are needed and leaders are in a unique position to serve a key role in influencing nutrition readiness. Leader-Inspired Nutrition (LIN) is a proposed framework that equips leaders with strategies for building a culture of health. Leader-Inspired Nutrition provides an approach leaders can leverage within units to improve health and performance. The LIN framework was developed from relevant and evidence-based information through collaboration with key nutrition subject matter experts and leaders. The 7 core pillars of LIN are to integrate nutrition basics, model top-down nutrition behaviors, promote a performance-focused food environment, integrate dietary supplements knowledge, consider economic factors that affect nutrition choices, evaluate Total Force Fitness impact, and promote utilization of DoD wellness resources. Each pillar provides leaders with a practical approach to engaging service members while encouraging nutrition readiness. As leaders engender trust and serve as role models, the adoption of the LIN framework in their units can guide and foster a culture of health within the DoD. Leader-Inspired Nutrition will assist leaders in building shared communities through healthful nutrition and mealtime experiences and serve to shape military nutrition policies that affect readiness within the DoD. This commentary describes the concept of LIN, the elements and principles of LIN, and how leaders can inspire service members to maximize performance to support nutrition readiness.