Posted on 08/27/2007 5:36:16 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
AN EPIDEMIC of obesity could have serious consequences for America's economy and its ability to defend itself, according to a leading politician.
Self-confessed "recovering foodaholic" Mike Huckabee, a Republican Party presidential candidate, told a group of governors from the American South that the increasing numbers of people who were either over-weight or obese meant more and more people were having to take time off work for health reasons.
And Mr Huckabee, who lost 110lb - nearly 8st - several years ago when he was governor of Arkansas, said he was concerned by reports that nearly two-thirds of American military personnel were overweight.
He questioned whether the nation's increasingly obese population would be able to defend itself "if we don't have enough people who are healthy enough to show up and pick up a backpack?"
The Southern Governors' Association convention heard that obesity was creating the first generation of Americans who might not live as long as their parents. Dr William Rowley, who was a vascular surgeon for 30 years and now works at the Institute for Alternative Futures, said 61 per cent of US active-duty military personnel are overweight.
Mr Huckabee, who is among a crowded pack of candidates in the Republican Party race, which also includes former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, actor and former senator Fred Thompson and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, said the statistic disturbed him.
"You've got a serious situation with a generation of kids coming up so unhealthy they won't be able to pass the military physical," he said in an interview after the panel discussion.
"We keep talking about the war on terror - who's going to fight it if we don't have enough people who are healthy enough to show up and pick up a backpack?"
Mr Huckabee - who left office in January after having been governor since July 1996 - implemented a number of programmes to battle weight problems in Arkansas, including having state schools measure students' body fat.
But he worried that not enough was being done to ensure children growing up in the US today were living healthy lifestyles.
"Let me ask this question: who's going to fight it in the future if we're a generation so sick that we don't have the capacity to show up for work?" Mr Huckabee said.
The governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, also a Republican, said during the panel discussion that the eight fattest states in the nation were all in the South. He questioned whether diet was a factor in areas of the country where fried chicken is part of the culture.
"I don't know that fried chicken has anything to do with it," Mr Barbour said. "We weren't raised eating right in the South, but the good news is we can do something about it."
Health has been an early issue in Republican debates.
On Friday, Mr Romney said the government had to help to ensure everyone was covered by health insurance.
He announced healthcare initiatives that would deregulate the insurance market, cap malpractice claims and make sure everyone was insured.
Instead of using federal money to reimburse hospitals for treating people without insurance, he said he wanted the money to be used to help low- income people buy insurance at a lower cost.
I have a sister who is 5’3” and weighs 500 pounds. She lives on diet soda. Listen to the term sodium saccharan what is the first word, sodium and what does too much salt do? makes you hold water weight.
I worked for a few years at a Bob’s Big Boy Restaurant. I cannot tell you how many people would come in and order a Hot fudge cake, or a Hot fudge sundae with a diet coke. AMazing.
Absolutely! Plus all the other make believe additives they put in processed foods to make you addicted to their near toxic alchemy...
We have engineered activity out of our modern lives...
I'll have a cup of the broccoli and cheese soup, a half-pound mushroom-swiss burger with jalapenos, an order of onion rings and a DIET COKE!!
Well, duh.
yes. it is the same diff with drinking lowfat or non fat milk the whole milk tastes like you are drinking heavy whipping cream.
you just become adjusted to it.
Well said. It's about more laws, more control, more oppression and less freedom. Once laws were changed regarding smoking, the barn door was opened and it'll eventually turn in to a stmapede by the totalitarians and the trial law-yers.
I use to work hard but landed a soft job and got fat, now I am losing it(and it isn't easy!)and feel much better. I put exercise(not a tremendous amount but enough)back into my life and I watch my calories, two pounds a week floating off me(well not floating, but dissapearing at any rate!).
“Of course, most obese people don’t actually eat more than the rest of us do. It’s just a stereotype.”
Yes, obese people just gain weight from the thin air.
/snerk
Find me the most honest person in the room, and the one thing they’ll lie about is their weight, and diet.
We’re a nation of gluttons. Be it food, money, sex, power, toys, whatever - we’re a nation of greedy, lazy gluttons.
If you’re completely honest with yourself, you’ll see it.
What you do after realizing it...defines you. I chose to not be like that. If you disagree, fine. It’s your life.
Well, at least they are playing to their base of puerile morons.
When I was in the army, during second eight weeks of training for tanks, we had a recruit that looked like the picture you posted, he made it through basic somehow but never survived the second eight weeks of tanks. I think they must have passed him in basic just to see the reactions of the DIs in the second eight!
Interesting that I’ve never seen a study that indicates how much time off work people take due to on-the-job stress. Of course, employers don’t want to admit that people miss work because of that.
Ah yes, nothing to add to the discussion, no intelligent discourse, just ad hominem attacks and name calling.
Does your mommy and daddy know you’re on the PC instead of at summer school?
Excellent imitation of the thinking of the left. ;)
I agree 100% but I’ve already been called a smart growth nazi on this thread. Watch up.
Thank you for getting my sarcasm. I thought it not so offensive that I needed to spoil it with a sarcasm tag, yet exquisitely annoying in its banality.
It's become a Catch-22, anyone with a brain in their head, would not want the job.
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