…um, guys…? I’m somewhat skeptical that the Army is living up to the imperative expectation that we “Be Ready”….
The RAND Corporation is an out with a study showing that nearly 66% of Servicemembers are either overweight or obese, in line with “the obesity epidemic plaguing the United States, where, as of 2015, one in three young adults are considered too fat to enlist, creating a difficult environment for recruiters to find suitable candidates for military service.”
66%.
That’s basically two-thirds of our military, for those of you following along at home.
But there’s more. The Army is apparently the branch of service accounting for the highest percentage of overweight troops, with 69.4% of soldiers falling into the overweight or obese category. Given what to me sounds like crisis levels, could someone tell me why there are any “red” options in the DFAC? “Low Performance Food” is seemingly turning into “Low Performance Soldiers”. And, in practical application: the Military Times reported this past July that “the military spends more than $1.5 billion annually treating obesity-related health conditions and replacing those discharged because they’re unfit.” Indeed, an Army study recently concluded that obese Soldiers may be too expensive to retain on Active Duty.
It’s not just diet, I get that. It’s also sleep, and medication, and lifestyle, and drinking, and video games, etc. But come on guys! It’s a problem that the Army is having a hard time keeping its fighting force in shape, given the difficulties in finding suitable candidates in the first place. In light of declining interest in military service, and the reality that just under 30% of Americans ages 17 to 24 aren’t eligible to serve on account of weight, a study entitled “Unhealthy and Unprepared” by the researchers at Mission: Readiness paints an even more dire picture of the manning challenges facing America’s Armed Forces.
Tonight is Halloween. Have you earned that piece of candy you’re stealing from your child’s pail?
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UPDATE (4 February 2019) :
Millennials “face a growing risk of cancers related to obesity. Specifically . . . colorectal, endometrial, gallbladder, kidney, and pancreatic cancers, as well as multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer . . . . The numbers suggest that millennials have roughly twice the risk of developing these cancers as baby boomers did at the same age.”
Click to read the article.