If you think that burning the midnight oil will also help you burn calories, think again. A recent study reported in Reuter’s Health suggests that lack of sleep may result in burning less calories and eating more food than when fully rested. So if you are trying to manage your weight, getting adequate sleep should be an essential part of your plan. A summary of the original research article in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is also available online.

With the rise of obesity among children, restaurants are stepping up to help combat the issue by offering healthier menu items for children. Focusing more on fruits and vegetables, lean protein, and low-fat dairy items, the new initiative “Kids LiveWell” is working with restaurants to offer meals that are lower in unhealthy fats, added sugars, and sodium. Read more about this initiative at Kids LiveWell.

What has the Human Performance Resource Center (HPRC) been doing this past year to make our Warfighters safer? A lot! HPRC has a number of missions, but the most important one—and the one that all of HPRC’s other tasks support—is to provide evidence-based information on Human Performance Optimization (HPO). HPO involves giving our Warfighters the training and information they need to effectively carry out their missions in any environment, with the resilience to avoid injury and illness and the ability to recover quickly if injured or ill. As it turns out, HPO embodies all the domains of Total Force Fitness (TFF)—physical fitness, nutrition, dietary supplements, extreme environments, family/social issues, and psychological fitness—that ADM Mullen is asking the services to embrace.

Some of the accomplishments of HPRC this year are:

1. Responding to questions from the field (mostly from Warfighters and providers) at the average rate of one per day and growing. These questions cover topics such as proper hydration, dietary supplement use, sleep requirements, managing altitude sickness, how to beat heat illness, and fitness fueling. Every question answered has the potential of protecting our Warfighters from inaccurate commercial information and harmful practices and of increasing their resilience.
2. Overseeing a workgroup of subject matter experts (SMEs) who developed a white paper on High-Intensity Training that helps put in perspective the information available on these popular training programs. A scientific paper will be published in the near future.
3. Overseeing the workgroup of SMEs who are developing the concept of Total Force Fitness for ADM Mullen, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.
4. Developing and expanding a website that is now servicing more than a thousand people a week by supplying needed information on HPO and TFF.
5. Supplying “healthy tips” to entities such as the Uniformed Services publication The Pulse and the Military Times.
6. Partnering with multiple organizations across the services and DoD to help collaborate and coordinate efforts in HPO/TFF.

These examples provide a good snapshot of the activity level at HPRC. The staff and volunteer SMEs are working hard to make our Warfighters safer and more resilient to both physical and mental trauma. Who could ask for a better mission?

Fruits & Veggies — More Matters™ is a health initiative led by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH), to increase daily consumption of fruits and vegetables. Visit the CDC and PBH websites for helpful tips, recipes, and interactive tools to help you increase your intake of fruits and vegetables.

Several weeks ago we started a series on strategies for processing emotions. We have described four "savoring" strategies and four "dampening" strategies. Using more of the savoring strategies and fewer of the dampening strategies can help positive feelings linger from positive experiences. But you must also make sure you use strategies that match your personality and lifestyle. In this research study, those who used multiple savoring strategies (and avoided more of the dampening strategies) were the happiest. The authors also suggest staying in the moment when something positive happens to you and once the moment has passed, stepping back and savoring the experience. Take a moment now to review the tips from weeks one, two, three, and four.

To learn additional well-being strategies for your happiness toolkit, visit the HPRC's Mind Tactics domain, as well as the Defense Centers of Excellence Mind-Body Strategies website and White Paper.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released MyPlate as the new Dietary Guidance graphic. MyPlate replaces the Food Guide Pyramid and is split into five sections for fruit, vegetables, grains, dairy and protein. The new recommendations focus on the importance of eating fruits and vegetables (half a “plate”). Go to www.ChooseMyPlate.gov for the new graphic and recommendations. For the USDA press release issued about MyPlate, click here.

Soldier 360° is a resilience program being implemented by the Army for Warfighters who have combat experience and their families. In fact, Warfighters take the second half of the two-week class with their spouses, while childcare is provided for those who need it. It’s aimed at non-commissioned officers who are nominated by their commanders. The course provides Warfighters with information and strategies on stress management, anger management, relaxation, health, communication, conflict resolution, nutrition, sleep, combat stress, and management of non-optimal behaviors. It also teaches physical fitness, yoga, meditation, conditioning, injury prevention, and pain management. The program combines financial counseling with Military and Family Life Consultant Program counselors, acupuncturists, physicians, and a myriad of others. Read another article from Army.mil for more information.

A recent study by The Journal of Consumer Research looked at the impact of changing the name of a food and how it affects the food choices made by dieters and non-dieters alike. Calling potato chips “veggie chips” and a milk shake a “fruit smoothie” can lead people to make unhealthy food choices. Read more about the study in the article “Many Dieters Eating Wrong Food Due to Misleading Labeling.”

According to the National Sleep Foundation’s (NSF) latest poll, our electronic gadgets may be preventing us from getting adequate sleep. Common behaviors such as computer use, texting, and watching television are associated not only with less sleep but with lower quality sleep. One recommendation from NSF: “Create a cool, comfortable sleeping environment that is free of distractions. If you're finding that entertainment or work-related communications are creating anxiety, remove these distractions from your bedroom.” For the full report of the poll, visit NSF’s Annual 2011 Report Homepage: Technology and Use and Sleep.

March is National Nutrition Month, and this year’s theme is “Eat Right with Color,” which promotes eating lots of fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains, lean proteins, and dairy foods. For recipes, snack ideas, games, and overall resources supporting National Nutrition Month, go to the American Dietetic Association’s page on nutrition education resources.