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The US military is looking for a few fat pot heads… According to the Washington Times, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter spoke on “Force of the Future” military reforms this week that may involve relaxed recruiting rules on everything from single-parent enlistees to drug use and obesity. “We’re going to review and update these standards as appropriate,” Mr Carter said, “Now, some of these things we’ll never be able to compromise on. And we will always have to maintain high standards. But at the same time, these benchmarks must be kept relevant for both today’s force and tomorrow’s, meaning we have...

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter spoke on “Force of the Future” military reforms this week that may involve relaxed recruiting rules on everything from single-parent enlistees to drug use and obesity. A Tuesday event at City College of New York featured Mr. Carter speaking on the challenges of recruitment in a nation that is fatter, increasingly at ease with smoking marijuana, and producing more single-parent homes

Most people can survive without food for at least a few weeks, maybe a bit longer. Eventually, however, starvation kills. Yet the limits on how long people can go without eating are complicated; without water people are unlikely to last a week, but the amount of time starvation takes can vary drastically. Take the story of Angus Barbieri. For 382 days, ending July 11, 1966, the then-27-year-old Scotsman ate nothing. There's limited documentation of Barbieri's fast: there are a few old newspaper stories recounting his ordeal and more convincingly, there's a case report describing the experience that his doctors published...

New Creation Church in Hillsboro recently found itself at the center of a controversy when guidelines posted on its website for people seeking to join the "worship team" were posted on Facebook. Among the requirements for the group of churchgoers who help lead the congregation in songs during services at the non-denominational evangelical church? "No excessive weight." "Weight is something that many people have to deal with," reads the instructions for would-be worship team members. "Make sure that you are taking care of your temple, exercising and eating properly." Ponder Anew, a blog about faith, reports that the document was...

Millions of American teenagers are at risk of running out of food or don't have access to affordable, healthy food. Some of them are so desperate, they're selling their bodies and committing crimes to go to jail to ensure regular meals, according to an Urban Institute study. Breaking down the numbers The study found at least 6.8 million people were "food insecure," meaning they didn't have reliable access to affordable, healthy food. Another 4 million were in "marginally food secure" households, where the "threat of running out of food is real." All of the 10 communities surveyed in focus groups...

First lady Michelle Obama has been encouraging healthy eating and exercise for years, but her efforts have failed to make a dent in the national obesity rate, which has increased since President Barack Obama took office. According to the results of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, released Wednesday, the obesity rate in the U.S. increased 2.5 percentage points from 25.5 percent in 2008 to 28.0 percent in 2015. While the national obesity rate is on the rise, millennials (those born between 1980 and 1996) are the one generation that has seen its obesity rate decline. Since 2008, the obesity rate among...

Obese people will be routinely refused operations across the NHS, health service bosses have warned, after one authority said it would limit procedures on an unprecedented scale. Hospital leaders in North Yorkshire said that patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above – as well as smokers – will be barred from most surgery for up to a year amid increasingly desperate measures to plug a funding black hole. The restrictions will apply to standard hip and knee operations.

Egypt’s state-run television has suspended eight of its female presenters for being overweight — telling them they can return to the air only after they go on a diet. The move sparked outrage among women’s groups and members of parliament but state television authorities show no sign of backing down. The presenters were given a month to lose weight and told they will not be allowed back on screen until they have an “appropriate appearance,” according to the Youm7 newspaper. The decision was made by Safaa Hegazi, the female chief of Egypt’s ERTU public broadcaster. .... Khadija Khatab, one of...

The largest hunger-fighting organization in the nation’s capital has put food-donating retailers on notice: no more candy, sugary sodas, or sheet cakes. As key as donations are to the nonprofit’s bottom line, the Capital Area Food Bank recently told retailers that, beginning this fall, it won’t accept free food that comes at a cost to recipients—many of whom struggle with obesity and diabetes as much as hunger. At a time when 97 percent of households reporting food insecurity “cannot afford a balanced meal,” the organization’s effort is part of a larger national shift that acknowledges solving hunger isn’t always as...

There's no question that sleep is intricately tied to weight. How big a factor is it? Perpetual sleep deprivation can undermine weight loss efforts as significantly as adding a Big Mac to our regular daily diet. Research is so strong for the case for sufficient sleep as a weight loss aid that as a nutritionist I look at sleep as the third element in the trifecta of factors that impact our weight, right alongside diet and exercise. So it should be no surprise that sleep apnea – a condition where people stop breathing during sleep, as often as 30 times...

Meat consumption in the United States — and across much of the Western world — has reached a level that is unsustainable, both for our planet and for our health. We owe it to ourselves to make a change. Our politicians owe it to us to enable that change. The average American eats three times as much meat as experts deem healthy, the average European around twice as much. And the emerging economies are quickly catching up: by 2050, global consumption is expected to rise a further 76 percent. Excessive meat-eating is partly responsible for an epidemic of obesity —...

If you've ever seen a friend have good results from a diet but then not been able to match those results yourself, you may not be surprised by new findings in mice that show that diet response is highly individualized. "There is an overgeneralization of health benefits or risks tied to certain diets," said William Barrington, Ph.D., a researcher from North Carolina State University who conducted this work in the laboratory of David Threadgill, Ph.D., at Texas A&M University. "Our study showed that the impact of the diet is likely dependent on the genetic composition of the individual eating the...

A new study suggests that people are are overweight tend to be less intelligent than those who are not. According to the study, people who are overweight have less grey and white matter in key parts of the brain, meaning their brain develops an “altered reward processing,” effectively meaning they lack the ability to control their eating. The results were extracted from “very thorough” brain scans of 32 people from Baltimore....

In an effort to maintain the new status quo of cutting standards everywhere in the name of equality and "progress", the Marine Corps announced major changes over the Fourth of July holiday weekend regarding how much it will allow service members to weigh, and the biggest shift comes for women: going forward "larger" ladies will be allowed to defend the country while also standards used within the physical fitness test will also be relaxed. In a document released by USMC Fitness division, the new height and weight standard took effect on July 1, 2016 and is relaxing regulations to increase...

The U.S. is the breast country in the world. American women have the biggest boobs across the globe, with the average babe’s bosom measuring a D-cup (which would be an F in European sizes). The Journal of Female Health Sciences busted out this eye-raising new research after analyzing the volume of breast tissue in 342,000 women ages 28-30 in 108 different countries. They only surveyed ladies who were not pregnant or breastfeeding — and those whose boobs were not surgically enhanced — to get the most natural measurements. “Women born in the U.S.A have by far larger breasts than women...

Salesa calls Maui’s depiction “obese,” and thinks children might get the wrong message about their bodies. “The environment our kids grow up in and what they are exposed to have a role to play. Disney movies are very influential on our children. It is great that Moana is the lead. However, it is disappointing that Maui, one of our beloved historical ancestors from hundreds of years ago, who was a very strong man [and] a skilled navigator, is depicted to be so overweight in this kids’ movie.”

Maine Gov. Paul LePage may have considered a proposal to prohibit food stamp recipients from using their benefits to buy candy and sodas to be a sweet one, but the Obama administration disagrees. The friction between the Republican governor and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reignited a debate after the Obama administration denied LePage’s request to put restrictions on what can be purchased with food stamps. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, LePage said: “It’s time for the federal government to wake up and smell the energy drinks.” In an interview with The Daily Signal, LePage’s health...

A huge weightlifter has been dubbed the Iranian Hulk after astounding social media with his sheer physical size. Sajad Gharibi, 24, from Iran, is said to weigh almost 24 and a half stone and almost all of it is muscle. The giant man with a fierce expression has a following of over 59,000 followers on Instagram where he posts about what he does best - weightlifting.

Men have been disappearing from the workforce for decades. But a closer look at the data reveals that lower-income men account for much of the change -- and that reflects a big problem with the economy. Only 69% of these men, ages 25 to 54, are employed, according to new research from the Brookings Institution. That figure was 80% in 1980. Among middle class and upper-income men, 92% are working, down only slightly from 94% in 1980....

Hillary Clinton supports a measure that would require women to register for the draft. The former secretary of state told the Huffington Post Wednesday that she is in favor of a legislative amendment that would for the first time compel women to register with the Selective Service System. That legislation passed the Senate Wednesday as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, which cleared the upper chamber on a bipartisan, 85-13 vote. “I am on record as supporting the all-volunteer military, which I think at this time does serve our country well,” Clinton said. “And I am very committed to...