Threatened: U.S. troop deployments to places such as Afghanistan, pictured, could be threatened by poor fitness in the future.
There's one classic solution:
A nutritious balanced diet.
Posted on 05/02/2010 12:29:33 AM PDT by myknowledge
Fat teenagers are threatening America’s national security because they are too overweight to join the military, says a report.
The study blames the crisis – involving millions of youngsters – on unhealthy school meals. It claims nine million young adults, or 27 per cent of all Americans aged 17 to 24, are too fat to meet military recruiting standards.
And in some parts of the country, such as Huntington, West Virginia – featured in a controversial TV series by Jamie Oliver – more than half the population are clinically obese.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Threatened: U.S. troop deployments to places such as Afghanistan, pictured, could be threatened by poor fitness in the future.
There's one classic solution:
A nutritious balanced diet.
Not something the government should butt into. Ever.
I don’t think the government should tell people what to eat, but if the government schools are serving the meals, they could choose to provide healthier options.
It may be that kids today are too fearful of going out into their neighborhood for any kind of physical activity. It may be that those who do, terrorize the neighborhood and these hoods may be the real cause of overweight teenagers.
“It claims nine million young adults, or 27 per cent of all Americans aged 17 to 24, are too fat to meet military recruiting standards.”
Jack Webb might have the answer @1:45-2:17 of this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwnPDNOAKhs
Great little movie, btw.
Unless you want more troops for your army...
Yes well, we were all a little on the runty side after the Great Depression.
Six weeks of boot camp should get most of the recruits running decently. They are already pretty strong. Most big boys are.
We don’t have to run that much, anyway. Our enemies should be the ones running away. Who would you rather face in the trenches, a 6’ 220 pound Iowa farm boy or a 5’ 6” 125 pound North Korean? (The North Korean has a “good” BMI)
Perhaps we should also stop drugging so many of our boys with Ritalin, and rather let the majority except for the very serious head cases be ACTIVE and grow up ACTIVE.
Or maybe both. A percentage to be fat and easily controlled and a percentage to keep them and the rest of the sheeple in line.
That’s what they would do. They’d be foolish to have only fat and easily controlled drones.
School meals causing this? I doubt it. We didn’t exactly eat low calorie school meals when I was young (Tator Tots—Mmmmm). Perhaps a little less X-box and a little more running and playing outside?
Exactly! I ate public school lunches for 12 years and never got fat. In elementary school we had recess with monkey bars and swings! Few bumps and bruises but schools were not afraid of being sued. The next 6 years we had 2-4 periods of phys ed a week every semester.
But we also WALKED! You wanted to go somewhere, you walked. Rode bikes. Roller-skated (those old metal skates that clamped onto your shoes :)
He no longer takes the medicine and has learned to function without the drug. I think without those years with the drug, he may have never learned the skills he needed to get his mind to work for him instead of against him.
Difficult topic, this.
1. government has nothing to do with an individual’s preferences for food;
2. but governement will have to face the consequences of an increase in the number of youngsters having a wrong diet.
How to square these facts (for a conservative, that is)?
Obesity is something else than just ‘being corpulent’, ‘sturdily built’. It is an illness. It includes an enomously increased risk for cardiovascular diseases, clinical depression, diabetes. It places an astronomical financial burden on a country’s health care expenses, whatever way one thinks about the way these expenses should be insured.
Even apart from the problems it may present in recruiting able soldiers: the tentacles of widely spread obesity do their bad things in every layer of society.
It is not that hard to describe the consequences of nationwide obesity.
In short: a country gets weakened. Its defenses, literal and cultural, get compromised. It becomes a more easy prey for those who want to attack it. I’d even say that, as we speak, that potential Jihadists emphasize the virtues of being ‘lean and mean’.
The story is as old as humankind itself. Obesity represents decadence. The lack of will to stand up and defend. It is: apathy.
And therefore, my FRiends, I think that government should intervene, albeit in a measured way. If youngsters, did not learn how to eat healthily and moderately at home, then school should re-educate them in this respect. This is no shame. It is a practical solution for an enormous problem, threatening the whole western world.
Where do I start? How about no recess for fear of lawsuits? How about no physical education classes? How about unhealthy meals at home or in fast food restaurants? How about Cable TV, video games and the internet? How about the demise of patriotism and the tradition of military service as an obligation, not a last resort?
All other things being equal, I’d prefer to face the bigger target...
You want fat? Check out photos of the ATF and SIEU slobs. Democrats are fat. Go to any DMV if you want to see fatty behind the counter. Drive through any liberal city and check out the 400 lb tubs rolling down the street. Look at any democrat convention to see whales floating among a sea of fat. Democrats have a problem with fat. If democrats had to field an army, they’d need to be armed with defibrillators not rifles.
The cure for the problem is called “Boot Camp”.
What a big uproar about nothing.
Whoa! No wonder libs are fattening themselves into oblivion.
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