Obesity epidemic at new high, costs $150B a year, hurts military recruiting

CPT Aaron Kletzing You cannot point to one factor for a decrease in recruiting. When patriotism is looked at as a joke at best, and oppressive at worst, why would someone enlist. Additionally when you look at a society that values me myself and I over community and service. I mean look at what it took to bring people together. People didn't put aside their petty differences until Harvey hit a major U.S. city. This country is FUBAR, our sense of who we are is in the crapper. Even the diversity the nation has for so long held as a part of our fiber has become a cause for strife. With less than 1% serving in the armed forces, there is not any one factor that can be pointed to as a root cause.
When you talk about obesity rates, you are opening another can of worms. We do have a high rate of obesity. Our society has developed a penchant for dining out. Dining out on huge portions of food. Additionally with our fast paced lives we have a propensity for consuming a high volume of processed foods. As a throw back to our hunting and gathering days, we are genetically programmed to seek high calorie foods. The problem being that we are not moving, and surviving. So we get fat. Those who are not genetically predisposed to being thin, and wish to do so run on human hamster wheels and lift heavy things in a gym to keep their physique. I would be remiss if I did not address laziness. Americans have become lazy. No way to sugar coat that. The hypocrisy is amazing. Watch half an hour of television. You will be inundated with adds that tell you how to lose weight, and telling you to eat at McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's. The one thing consist among them is that they are all processed foods. Even going to a grocery store you don't know what you are buying. We are not in touch with the land, the animals, and the food we eat. It is really not surprising that we are growing exponentially around the mid section.
There are still some who have not forgotten that this nation is worth defending. Some who are willing to stand up and put their nation before themselves. So maybe we should be praising those who volunteer to serve. Maybe we should instead of wonder why those who can't or won't serve we should be applauding the one who do serve.
Personally, I failed. I gained while I was in. I was seperated, and I cannot change that. I have to live with that. I lost weight to join the Navy. I joined the Navy. I became complacent. I threw away the hard work I had put in so that I could enlist. I was honorably discharged, but every day I have to live with the fact that I could have and should have done more.

Insofar as military recruiting goes, there's several flaws in this report.

"Nine of the 11 states with the highest obesity rates are in the South and 23 of the 25 states with the highest rates of obesity are in the South and Midwest." And yet, southern states account for nearly half of all military recruits-- mid 40%, if memory serves. Hmm.

Maybe because BMI as a system of measurement was created nearly two hundred years ago, and has been discredited by fitness and nutrition professionals for decades?

This "70% of youths not fit to serve" makes for a good headline, but it's simply not realistic, especially when you add in waivers. Plenty of people are "disqualified" for the listed reasons, but still end up in a uniform.

I think this should be treated as a National Health emergency as is any other major epidemic and appropriate measures taken. I think one huge step forwards our society can take is to base airline fares in part on body weight.........in return for more legroom and space between seats. Perfect trade-off if you ask me.