70% of Americans are overweight or obese. Something like 10% are chronically obese. The military has to recruit from this pool of candidates, no this article shouldn’t surprise anyone.
There is no doubt that Americans are bigger and fatter these days. Walk through a museum and look at uniforms from WWII. The men were rail thin and the women were very petite, having amazingly tiny waists.
Every once in a while I’ll see a photo of a crowd from 1940s-1970s or so. Maybe 2% overweight people stand out. The rest are close to normal weight or even a little too slender.
This TV ad still gives me a strong negative reaction.
https://www.google.com/search?q=+woman+in+tv+ad+for+jardiance&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwinrrLcv4WCAxX1wOUKHTFrAJoQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=+woman+in+tv+ad+for+jardiance&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQDFC9BlinRmClVmgAcAB4AIABU4gBghSSAQI0MZgB
which is also we people stayed married longer and had more babies and didn’t need viagra. Their wives were much hotter than the obese cows most women are today.
I graduated in 1964 and remember one fat guy and one fat girl. Neither would qualify as obese today.