Mothers and Fathers Protect your children- Start COOKING!!
Military Says Obese Recruits Put Nation At Risk
POSTED: 12:24 pm PDT July 3, 2005
UPDATED: 12:56 pm PDT July 3, 2005
WATERTOWN, Wis. — With America at war and in need of a few good men and women, Jon Schoenherr expected a warm reception when he walked into an Army recruiting office in this Midwestern farm community, intending to enlist.
But a sergeant gave the 17-year-old some surprising news.
“He told me I’d have to lose a little bit of weight,” said Schoenherr, who dropped 50 pounds to qualify.
Besides terrorists, germ warfare and nuclear weapons, military officials increasingly worry about a different kind of threat – troops too fat to fight.
Weight issues plague all branches of the military, from elite Marines to the Air Force, often lampooned as the “chair force” because of its many sedentary jobs.
Thousands of troops are struggling to lose weight, and thousands have been booted out of the service in recent years because they couldn’t.
However, one of the biggest worries concerns those not even in uniform yet: Nearly 2 out of 10 men and 4 out of 10 women of recruiting age weigh too much to be eligible, a record number for that age group.
“This is quickly becoming a national security issue for us. The pool of recruits is becoming smaller,” said Col. Gaston Bathalon, an Army nutrition expert.
Food will save your ass from illegal wars.
But
“Far too few Americans,” declares the center’s Web site, “remember that the Founding Fathers, authors of modern liberty, greatly enjoyed their food and drink. … Now it seems that food liberty – just one of the many important areas of personal choice fought for by the original American patriots – is constantly under attack.”
..In part, this is yet another red-blue cultural conflict. On average, people living outside metropolitan areas are heavier than urban or suburban residents, and people in the South and Midwest are heavier than those on the coasts. So it’s all too easy for worries about America’s weight to come off as cultural elitism.
Will obesity be the next political issue?