‘Mission: Readiness, a group of more than 300 retired generals and admirals’ wants junk food out of schools
Several hundred retired military leaders are raising red flags about childhood obesity in the U.S. and its impact on finding qualified recruits, calling for junk food to be booted out of schools and healthier fare to be offered in vending machines and a la carte lines.
Mission: Readiness, a group of more than 300 retired generals and admirals, is releasing a new report today saying that the 40 percent of students who buy high-calorie, low-nutrient junk food from school vending machines and cafeteria a la carte lines consume an average of 130 calories a day from those types of foods (candy, chips, cookies, pastries). That’s roughly 5 percent to 10 percent of the calories kids and teens should eat in a day.
All those extra calories are contributing to childhood obesity, a problem that means many young people are too heavy to serve in the military, ultimately putting national security at risk, the report says.
Three-quarters of those ages 17 to 24, or about 26 million young people, cannot serve in the military, a quarter of them because they are overweight or obese, says retired Air Force lieutenant general Norman Seip, a spokesman for Mission: Readiness, which advocates policies that would help young Americans get ready to serve. Other reasons young people can’t join if they want to: They don’t have a high school diploma, have criminal records or suffer from other health problems.
The new report, called ‘Still Too Fat to Fight,’ is a follow-up to the group’s 2010 report, ‘Too Fat to Fight.’
‘We look at childhood obesity not only as a health crisis but a national security issue,’ Seip says. ‘When 25 percent of young people can’t join the military simply because they are overweight, that’s an issue that needs to be dealt with.’
Well with this potentially affecting recruitment and military readiness the Republicans in Congress will jump all over this right? Yeah I doubt they will do anything either.