Too Fat To Fight

General General Discussion
1

Bad mojo here. :cool:


Report: Too Fat to Fight?
By David Pittman, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today
Published: September 25, 2012

WASHINGTON – Many overweight and obese young adults are currently ineligible for U.S. military service which could jeopardize the Armed Forces and national security, according to retired military personnel.

In a report released Tuesday, nearly 200 retired military leaders claimed that 27% of young adults, or at least 9 million 17- to 24-year-olds, are too fat for military service. They called on Congress to take action to reduce the number of vending machines dispensing unhealthy foods in schools.

“Being overweight or obese turns out to be the leading medical reason why applicants fail to qualify for military service,” according to the report, called “Too Fat to Fight.” The authors pointed out that “otherwise excellent recruit prospects, some of them with generations of sterling military service in their family history, are being turned away because they are just too overweight.”

Between 1995 and 2008, the proportion of potential recruits who failed their physicals each year because they were overweight rose nearly 70%, according to Mission: Readiness, a nonpartisan group of retired senior leadership from all armed forces branches. Three-quarters of all young Americans are unable to join the military because they failed to graduate from high school, have criminal records, or are physically unfit.

“Removing the junk food from our schools should be part of comprehensive action that involves parents, schools and communities in helping children make healthy food choices,” Coast Guard Admiral James Loy (ret.) said in a news release. “The bottom line is that the armed services must have a sufficient pool of fit young adults to draw from in order to field enough recruits with the excellent qualifications needed to staff a 21st century military.”

Specifically, retired military leaders call on Congress to:

Reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act and allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to adopt new nutrition standards that could remove high-calorie, low-nutrition foods from schools
Support adequate funding to improve the quality of food available in schools
Deploy proven school-based programs that helping children adopt life-long changes in their eating and exercise habits

“There is evidence to show that intervening during school years, and even earlier, to provide healthful meals along with nutrition education, and simple techniques to motivate children or their children can reduce childhood weight gain,” the report stated.

Lawmakers need to provide meaningful increases in school lunch funding to make meals more nutritious and appetizing, they said.

The CDC and others have called for adoption of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) guidelines on what foods should be served and sold in schools. Now, Congress needs to give the USDA authority to adopt those standards, the retired leaders said.

To date, nearly half of the states have no nutrition standards for unhealthy foods sold in schools and only one has adopted most of the IOM’s recommendations, they said.

This isn’t the first time military leaders have become involved in a national debate on good nutrition. During World War II, the military rejected roughly 40% of recruits because of poor nutrition. Young military men were almost an inch and a half shorter then compared with today.

At the time, Gen. Lewis Hershey testified on behalf of the National School Lunch Program, which was established in 1946 and helped ensure children had access to healthy school meals.

“The health of our children and our national security are at risk,” the report authors wrote. “America must act decisively.”

Down Load Full Report:

http://www.missionreadiness.org/2010/too-fat-to-fight/

2

Although I think diet is an issue, I think as a society we would be foolish to claim that is the only problem. I think another big issue is that recess has pretty much gone away in many schools. Kid don’t have an outlet to get exercise during the day and combined with helicopter parenting which tends to limit activity is another reason why many kids are overweight. Finally, I think TV and video games encourage a seditary lifestyle.

I think another reason for obesity is simple genetics and your body’s hard wiring. The human body simply wasn’t designed for physical inactivity which is common today. For the vast majority of human history up until 50-100 years ago, most people had physically hard work for their daily routine just to stay alive. Modern society has transitioned from a manual work economy to an office economy and human genetics haven’t changed yet.

3

Both of the above comments underscore the need for a better diet.

I won’t bore this forum with my story, but a recent life-changing event caused me to totally rethink my diet away from the typical so-called “healthy” western diet.

I am now mostly vegan (OK, I backslide with fish occasionally but not with 2 or 4 legged amimals or thier products). I am lightler, faster, stronger and healthier than I have ever been in my adult life. I cut my total and bad cholestoral levels in half by just diet alone. And the new diet dropped about 20 points off my resting blood pressure.

I have no expetation that many people would go as far as I did with my diet, but the fact is that changes in diet can produce dramatic results, both good and bad, depending on what one puts in their body.

For those interested, read the works of T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., Dean Ornish and others.

4

The idea of vending machines at a school is an obvious fail, not every situation in life should be made into an opportunity to make a buck. When I was going to HS back in the 68-71 there were NO vending machines, I never even heard the idea…EVER, and no one was allowed to leave the campus to go to the local burger joint. Oh how the times have changed. In basic training (74’) only a few guys were that out of shape.

5

both parents work kids come home play vid games cause the nanny dont care if the kids sit as long as they dont bug her !
kids text now dont bother riding bikes climbing trees !
at school recess is more like sit in a group dont climb dont run dont hurt yourself sorry kicking a ball back and forth is not exercise

and for sure diet ! no time to cook nuke it slap it on a plate or eat out of package !
breakfast grab a sugar bar marked as a breakfast bar !
drinks ! water YUK give me some energy drink
CHIPS OH NO FAT so they have to be good for you ! OR at least are not bad sure johnny eat as many as you want !
to tired to even nuke stop by drive through OK dinner burgers shakes fries only 120 gram of fat and 2300 calories at 8PM now off to bed kids !

I think its just todays lifestyles and whats around us and what we do
their is NO EXCUSE its just CHOICES many make

6

In comparing the physical fitness of young Americans, versus the lack of national political will/cohesion to achieve discernible victory in any conflict, as well as being broke 50 trillion times over, as strategic liabilities, I think it’s pretty far down the list.

7

We aren’t broke 50 trillion times, just 16 trillion. As to priorities, it is the fatties that are driving up health care costs with their diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems and making us as a nation even more broke. And that doen’t even count them not being able to get off their fat asses and do something constructive, such as serve in the military.

8

I wonder how the food nazi’s would feel if they used the general’s rationale for more restrictions on school menus and then he said “Oh, yea, we need to work on marksmanship too.”

Forcing things on teenagers is less than usefull, it may actually be counterproductive. Why does Moo-shell think she can get kids off sugar when the liberals seem to mock the DARE program?

Make kids more active. More active kids burn more calories, being fat makes activity difficult and is a habit that will work for them the rest of their lives. I shudder to think of the calories I ate in high-school, but then again I played three sports, walked to school, had a paper route and a part time job on the weekends.

9

I survived on nothing BUT McDonalds, tacos, pizza and all manner of junk foods and was 140 lbs. most of my life.

Me in High School

Me in my early 30s

I didn’t break 200 lb until AFTER I got jobs that required long periods of me sitting at a desk and working so many hours that I no longer had the time and energy to go “do things.”

What did me in was going from having a metabolism that required four meals a day to NOT lose weight (especially when I was teaching three classes a night - five days a week in my 20s and early 30s.)

But at the same time I wasn’t making enough money to get by. The only jobs I could find that paid real money were mostly sitting down. And that combined with getting older really did a number on me.

In 1999 when I started my own business (while working a day job at the same time) I really started to notice the change. Getting that up and running required a LOT of time on the computer and little time for anything else.

By 2001 I hadn’t gained a lot of weight, but I sure wasn’t 140 lbs. anymore and I didn’t need to eat 4 times a day.

In the last decade I’ve tried to keep working out regularly but getting old doesn’t help. I’ve had a few injuries and working out seems to “break me down” as much as “keep me in shape” and the kind of training I once loved can now be very counter productive.

I’d be much better off mall walking or playing golf but it just isn’t my thing. I’m trying to make workouts more cardio centric but it’s hard for me to pace myself. I keep trying to do the things I did in my 20s and 30s and I simply burn all the gas in the tank in 10 minutes and require a 10 minute recovery. A couple hours of that in a night and I’m wrecked for the next two days. Middle age is a motherfucker.

On top of that my “training crew” sometimes shows and sometimes they don’t. We have gone from 4 night a week to 2 nights a week and sometimes nobody makes it in a given week and it’s hard to self motivate a decent workout. Without the competitiveness of somebody to work against, even if you are simply light sparring for cardio without keeping score, it’s too easy to get complacent with your workout.

When I am alone in training I usually work targets like heavy bag, makiwara, mook jong and various other contraptions I’ve built. Problem there is I tend to blow it all out and have difficulty pacing myself. So the result is I burn gas and gain no cardio benefit.

But I don’t think I can blame any of that on what I ate in school.

Granted, there were kids in school who weren’t as active as I. Even back then they had Nitendo and things like that. But I think complacent lifestyle is the major culprit and not fast food. I’ve you are complacent in middle school and high school, you are pretty much doomed unless you do something drastic.

10

Totally agree, if you can. Ideally change both diet and excercise, but it absolutely has to be one or the other. The high fat and sugar diets of today plus limited to no exercise are turning us into an unhealthy obese nation, which will, IMO, make us vunerable in a number of ways.

When I was in boot (Infantry 1966), IIRC our training company had a fat guys squad. Life was a special hell for those guys. Some made it but most didn’t.

11

Steyr- please tell me that mullet ninja is you.

Swimming. Low impact. I swam and played water polo in HS. We did something like 2500-5000 yards a day IIRC? You can eat anything…

12

It is, but not really a true mullet. It was one of those rat tail things from the 80s.

13

I know a guy who still has that exact hair cut…

And by the way, it’s extremely disappointing to know you’re not the guy from office space.

14

So you dont plan on us paying Medicare or SS?

And right now, we’re paying the interest on that 16 trillion at basically 0%. When the Fed stops buying bonds, that 16 trillion will look like 50 trillion in a nanosecond.

And we’re all fat?! And the government’s gonna fix it?!

15

I don’t follow your post. Since it appears aimed at me, I will answer it.

Why is it that I don’t plan on those that actually work to pay Medicare of SS? I don’t recall ever bringing that up here. The subject is Too Fat To Fight.

The Fed buying bonds does not directly increase the national debt as borrowing would. They simply create more money to buy bonds with, thereby devaluing our $ and driving up our cost of living.

Where did I say you’re all fat? Some clearly are, but not all. Or that the gubermint is going to fix it? Only proper diet and exercise will.

As to the USDA Food Pyramid, the USDA exists to serve the interests of the argiculture industry. It does make the best healty choices.

Here is a much better food pyramid, which has diet and exercise as its base:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/images/healthyeatingpyramidresize.jpg

16

You replied to me.

My only point was that fat, out of shape kids is way down the list of strategic concerns facing this country.

17

“The list”? You mean your list. IMO it is a major strategic consideration facing our country going forward from a socioeconomics standpoint, but, unfortunity, just one of many.

18

Everything goes so well when you force even more regulations on people. :rolleyes:

Students strike against new federal school lunch rules
Mukwonago - By 7 a.m. Monday, senior Nick Blohm already had burned about 250 calories in the Mukwonago High School weight room.

He grabbed a bagel and a Gatorade afterward; if he eats before lifting, he gets sick.

That was followed by eight periods in the classroom, and then three hours of football practice. By the time he headed home, he had burned upward of 3,000 calories - his coach thinks the number is even higher.

But the calorie cap for his school lunch? 850 calories.

“A lot of us are starting to get hungry even before the practice begins,” Blohm said. “Our metabolisms are all sped up.”

Following new federal guidelines, school districts nationwide have retooled their menus to meet new requirements to serve more whole grains, only low-fat or nonfat milk, daily helpings of both fruits and vegetables, and fewer sugary and salty items. And for the first time, federal funds for school lunches mandate age-aligned calorie maximums. The adjustments are part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 touted by Michelle Obama and use the updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The changes are hard to swallow for students like Blohm. On Monday, 70% of the 830 Mukwonago High students who normally buy lunch boycotted cafeteria food to protest what they see as an unfair “one size fits all thing.” Middle schoolers in the district also boycotted their school lunches, with counts down nearly half Monday. They’re not alone in their frustration; schools across the country are reporting students who are unhappy with the lunch offerings.

The sub sandwich line at Mukwonago High used to let students pile veggies on a six-inch French bread bun. Options now include a fist-sized whole wheat roll or multigrain wrap, and the once popular line is now mostly empty.

The healthier food is less the issue than the portions.

“A freshman girl who weighs 100 pounds can eat this lunch and feel completely full, maybe even a little bloated,” said Joey Bougneit, a Mukwonago senior.

But Blohm is a 6-foot-3-inch, 210-pound linebacker. He’s also class president, and takes several Advanced Placement classes. If schools want students to perform well, he said, they can’t be sitting in their chairs hungry.

Last year’s fare featured favorites like chicken nuggets and mini corn dogs in helpings that were “relatively decent,” Bougneit said. But health-conscious regulations have changed that. Last week’s super nacho plate, for example, offered just eight tortilla chips.

Adding to the dissatisfaction is a 10-cent price hike on lunches because the USDA, which oversees the National School Lunch Program, forced many districts to raise full-price lunches closer to the $2.86 it reimburses for students who qualify for free lunches. That means the leaner, greener lunches at Mukwonago High this year now cost $2.50 instead of $2.40.

“Now it’s worse tasting, smaller sized and higher priced,” Bougneit said.

Officials share concerns

Pam Harris, the district food service supervisor and a registered dietitian, said children’s weight and poor nutrition in America are serious problems, but the changes are too abrupt.

“I could not be more passionate about this,” Harris said. “I want to solve this problem. But limiting calories in school lunch is not going to help the overweight kid. What happens at home is a major piece of that puzzle.”

“Our issue is pretty much kids just don’t want to eat vegetables,” she said. “The USDA wants to solve the problem of childhood obesity. Those are two kind of separate issues.”

Harris spoke at all lunch periods Friday to explain the federal dietary changes and had students fill out comment cards explaining what they do and don’t like about the new menu. She plans to send those and parent letters to the USDA in hopes the department will allow districts including Mukwonago to gradually introduce their menu over a few years.

In a clothing store bag the size of a backpack, Blohm lugged his homemade, linebacker-size lunch including a bag of raw carrots, two ham sandwiches on wheat bread, two granola bars, an apple and three applesauce cups - an estimated total of 1,347 calories.

How long will the students keep boycotting the lunch program?

“I’ve already told my mom we might be packing my lunch for the rest of the year,” Blohm said.

Clay Iverson, Mukwonago’s varsity football head coach, said student-athletes are bigger, stronger and more athletic than ever before, and their food intake needs have evolved.

“Everything has been accelerated, and maybe nutrition hasn’t been,” he said.

He worries that if players’ stomachs are growling by the end of the school day, they’ll go home and binge on anything they get their hands on and undo any of the benefits of the lighter, healthier school lunch.

Teens need a push to make healthy eating choices, Iverson said, but they’ve got plenty else to worry about during the football season.

“I wonder if the people who made the decision had to go through a day like Nick Blohm.”

http://m.jsonline.com/news/education/students-strike-against-new-federal-school-lunch-rules-t96t7sp-170124676.html

19

More and better nutrition education is needed, not regulation.

20

Yep.

We had all the things TomMcC identified as “the problem.”

We left for lunch all the time in high school for Burger King, tacos, etc.

When I was a kid in the 70s our private school had vending machines with sodas and we even had an ice cream vending machine.

But that was also before the “hysteria” of knowing where your kids are at every second. After school we were gone until dinner and on the weekends when we left in the morning you wouldn’t see us again until dinner (we might stop in for lunch).

We actually went outside and DID THINGS. And that is a much more significant issue than if you can get a Big Gulp or not.