The Red, White, and Green

Nearly a third of America's youth are too overweight to become one of the recruits you see here. Photo via Flickr: The US Army

It’s no secret that US agricultural policy (subsidizing commodity products like corn and soybeans that, in turn, are used to make cheap, processed food) is seriously harming the health of our citizens. Obesity rates have skyrocketed in the past several decades since these subsidies were implemented. The average American now eats 600 more calories a day than he did in 1970.

But what about the direct link between our ag policy and national security? An eye-popping column this week from The Washington Post discusses how our pool of qualified military applicants is growing smaller and smaller, due to the fact that the waistlines of our nation’s young adults are growing larger and larger.

This, from a new Mission: Readiness report entitled “Too Fat to Fight,” which cites that 27 percent of our nation’s youth are too overweight to serve in the armed forces.

From WaPo:

The report…calls this trend “a threat to national security” and notes that “being overweight is now by far the leading medical reason for rejection.” From 1995 to 2008, the study says, “The proportion of potential recruits who failed their physicals each year because they were overweight rose nearly 70 percent.”

Within just 10 years, the number of states reporting that 40 percent of their 18- to 24-year-olds are obese or overweight went from one (Kentucky) to 39. In three states — Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama — more than 50 percent of the young adults were obese or overweight in 2008. To reach normal weight, the nation’s out-of-shape young adults would have to lose a collective 390 million pounds, according to the report.

Want to see for yourself how, exactly, we’re getting this obese? Check out this amazing post on ShareitFitness.com, about the sugar content of some of America’s favorite beverages. (Spoiler: One Rockstar Energy Drink has the same amount of sugar as six Krispy Kreme doughnuts!).

–Jennifer Grayson

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