Last year, the Pentagon had to grapple with quite a few negative headlines. The most alarming repetitive headline was that recruiting goals were not met across the board.
Of course, one might think that isn’t a big deal given that we have pulled out of Afghanistan and aren’t technically in an active war with anyone. That is, if you ignore the ‘secret wars’ in Syria and Iraq and our proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, but I digress. This news rightly rocked legislators and should concern Americans at large because of our increased tensions with China, which seems to be inevitably heading toward a future war.
However, let’s say you think the prospects of us finding ourselves in a hot war, like Afghanistan or a conflict with China, are slim to null. The fact that most young Americans couldn’t join the military if they wanted to should matter to every American, as it directly reflects the type of society we currently elevate.
Joe Rogan – Americans Are Too Fat For the Military https://t.co/uGZPVufMvZ via @YouTube— Doug (@DougKE0DC) February 7, 2023
A Fat System
A recent study has found that 77% of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 are physically unqualified to join the armed services, up 6% from 2017. To put that into simpler terms, over three-quarters of Americans within the prime military recruitment ages are too fat to raise their right hand to serve.
Look at those two statistics I mentioned again. It might be bad now, but that same demographic was just as fat and unqualified six years ago.
According to 2020 numbers, 42% of American adults are considered obese, with 19% on active duty falling into that category. That number is up from 16% of obesity in the active duty force in 2015. --->READ MORE HERE
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| 1st Lt. Angelo Mejia/U.S. Army |
It’s no secret that the U.S. military is struggling to find people who are fit for service these days. Maintaining health and wellness among its existing members has also become a challenge.
A Department of Defense report cited during a Feb. 16 congressional hearing offered a hard pill to swallow: 77 percent of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 are unqualified physically to enter the armed forces. That’s a 6 percent increase from 2017, which has added to the struggle to find new recruits in every branch of the military.
One of the major hurdles recruiters now face is obesity, which has become a dominant health challenge for Americans. As of 2020, the prevalence of obesity in the adult population hit nearly 42 percent.
In addition, research shows that government food subsidies are a significant contributing factor.
One 2022 study found a link between receiving food assistance and a greater chance of becoming obese through the consumption of unhealthy foods. That’s especially true for participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
As the largest federal nutrition assistance program in the United States, SNAP counts thousands of U.S. military members among its beneficiaries.
Presently, there are 22,000 active duty individuals and nearly 250,000 National Guard service members who receive SNAP, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
But this isn’t a new problem. Findings from a 2015 USDA analysis revealed that 40 percent of total SNAP participants were obese. --->READ MORE HERE
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