David Frum: Many more soldiers due to obesity than "don't ask, don't tell-tale" Frum says approximately one-quarter of young adults are excessively overweight when posting to THE USA's Michelle Obama criticized militaryConservatives focus on combating child obesityFrum says first lady target obesity is associated with the disease and high health costs Editor Note: David Frum writes a weekly column for cnn.com. A Special Assistant to President George w. Bush from 2001 to 2002, he is the author of six books, including "return: preservatives that can win again," and is the editor of FrumForum.Washington (CNN)--"an army travels on its stomach," said Napoleon Bonaparte.
But what happens if the stomach gets too large to move?
Congress discusses passion if open homosexuality is compatible with military service. But even as this war this culture that seem headed in motion, a new emerging cultural chasm tear military effectiveness: Obesity and overweight.
In 2008, some military personnel had cleared 634 overrun "don't ask, don't tell-tale." in the same year, were awarded 4,555 fail to meet the standards military weight.
"Too fat to fight against" young adults
Military weight standards is not very demanding. Male recruit younger than 27 must have a percentage body fat down by 26%. This is twice the fat you'd expect in a young in peak physical condition.
Even loose 26% standard is still too strict to modern America. More than 9 million young Americans--approximately one in four--is excessively overweight when posting, a recent found report.
The army has set such aspirations.
Otherwise qualified young men with 30% body fat (the boundary between "overweight" and "obese") can be conditionally recruited if they can perform a basic workout and then commit to reduce their weight within a year.
Serving personnel well beyond military offered students, nutritional programs and other aid weight-control. Exemption is very much a last resort and intimidating.
Of the numbers in the military, some 61% of active-duty personnel were ideal weight in 2007, up from 50% in 1995.
The US military is a reflection of the society of which it is party. Americans are gaining weight and profit are steepest inclined among young people.
Why? It is no mystery. The typical new spend today twice a lot of time watching television or playing video games from physical activity. Cheap, attractive, high-calorie foods and beverages is constantly at hand. Changes in family patterns have put an end to the expectation that food be consumed at one table with humans as a social event.
What should I do? Some experiments have suggested useful changes. Children who attend a school within a half mile of a fast-food restaurant is fatter than children who attend schools farther. So could help changes in zoning laws.
Physical education disappear from schools: just 25% of American high-schoolers take gym every day. Another 25% have no physical education at all.
Fewer and fewer students walk or bicycle to school, partly because the day high school was postponed so early: from the old rule of 9 a.m. for a new rule of 7: 20.
First Lady Michelle Obama has adopted healthier eating as a personal cause. In the hysterical blindness current American policy, this has led some critics of the Obama administration, including Sarah Palin, cherish spam food as a holy cause. Here is Rush Limbaugh on 9 November:
"Anyway, Michelle Obama on this major kick obesity, right? Gotta eat healthy stuff, gotta eat rubbish that carried out in the garden, nothing but fruit and vegetables. ... Michelle Obama wants to spend $ 400 million for combating food deserts. Is everyone upset that available in poor urban people only food that is convenience stores, 7-Eleven. ... So this complaining about his or her food deserts and Michelle Obama wants to punish Big food and Big Retail food stores for placement are not in poor neighbourhoods quality, right? And that is why there is an epidemic of obesity, right? "
But the first lady is right to worry. A White House vegetable garden is only the beginning of a political solution, but the first lady has realised an urgent national problem.
Opinion: Palin's mistake in obesity
Obesity and overweight are risk factors for diseases from cancer depressed. Obesity and overweight devour 10% of our national health expenditure. Obese and overweight people earn less and are less likely to be hired and promoted. And since 1990, obesity and overweight have emerged as critical problems for military planners--so much so that a group of retired officers is a trademark of American high school lunch programs calories as a threat to national security.
"Don't ask, don't tell-tale" might have been a day. If Yes, it is time to replace it with a new slogan. As one of my Twitter followers recently brilliantly quipped: "Don't Eat--don't Swell."
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Frum.
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