Is Childhood Obesity A Threat To National Security?
November 2, 2012Is Childhood Obesity A Threat To National Security?
Having junk food available in our schools is not just a national health issue. It is a national security issue according to a new study. More than 300 retired generals and admirals are very concerned about childhood obesity in the USA and the impact it will have on finding qualified recruits in the future. The group, Mission: Readiness, recently released a report called "Still Too Fat to Fight", a follow up on a previous report entitled "Too Fat Too Fight". According to the report, schools are selling 400 billion calories of junk food every year. This is the equivalent of nearly two billion candy bars and more than the weight of the aircraft carrier Midway. The report also reveals:
1. Being overweight or obese is the number one medical reason why young adults cannot enlist in the military.
2. One in four young adults are too overweight to serve in the military.
3. The military spends well over $1 billion a year on treating weight-related diseases.
4. Action is needed to ensure that America’s child obesity crisis does not become a national security crisis.
5. Poor nutrition and lack of exercise also affects recruits who are accepted in to the military causing unhealthy situations that can have an impact on military readiness. (Bone fractures, sprains, etc.)
David M. Edgington, Major General, US Air Force (Retired) (left), James M. Loy, Admiral, US Coast Guard (Retired) (center) and Richard E. Hawley, General, US Air Force (Retired) (right) on the deck of the Battleship Wisconsin in Norfolk, VA, before a press conference on the importance of early learning for national security.
The nonprofit Mission: Readiness group of former military leaders are joining parents and nutritionists in supporting new efforts to get junk food out of our schools. They believe, and rightly so, that it is important to invest in the health of America's children starting with the childhood obesity epidemic.
"We look at childhood obesity not only as a health crisis but a national security issue," says Norman Seip, retired a spokesman for Mission: Readiness. "When 25% of young people can't join the military simply because they are overweight, that's an issue that needs to be dealt with."
General Richard E. Hawley, US Air Force (Ret.) says, “In the civilian world, unfit or overweight employees can impact the bottom line. But in our line of work, lives are on the line and our national security is at stake.”