The U.S. military is faced with a "difficulty recruiting" dilemma: 1/4 young people are too obese and do not meet the requirements to join the military

The U.S. military is facing a "difficulty recruiting" dilemma: 1/4 young people are too obese and do not meet the requirements to join the military. Can poor eating habits also become a national security issue? 1/4 of...

The U.S. military is faced with the dilemma of "recruitment difficulties": 1/4 of young people are too obese and do not meet the requirements for joining the military. Can poor eating habits become a national security issue? One-quarter of the American people are too obese and do not meet the requirements for joining the military, which has actually caused a "difficulty in recruiting" dilemma for the US military, which is the world's leading combat power. The US "Ready Mission" organization released a report stating that obesity is the number one culprit in the recruitment problem of the US military. "Mission Ready" members include more than 500 retired U.S. military officers and are intended to ensure the future national security of the United States. "The number of men and women who can meet all the requirements and serve in the military is declining, and I'm very concerned about that. Nearly a quarter of all Americans between the ages of 17 and 24, or 25%, are too obese to serve in the military," said retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Stephen Tomaszewski, a member of Mission Ready and a member of Mission Ready. Representative of the organization and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsek called on school cafeterias to reduce the supply of junk food, and relevant parties should also raise the standards for school lunches. The U.S. Department of Defense found that since 1995, the obesity rate among U.S. active duty military personnel has been fluctuating between 50% and 60%. Although the degree of obesity has decreased slightly, the number of obese people has increased year by year. This trend is consistent with the obesity status of American people. In addition, a survey by the U.S. Department of Defense shows that if the BMI index is used as the standard, 51.2% of U.S. soldiers are obese. The most obese among all branches of the military is the Coast Guard (obese rate 57%); more than half of male soldiers are obese, far exceeding female soldiers (34%); in addition, 15.8% and 14.9% of soldiers in the U.S. Army and Navy are affected by obesity respectively. Many Americans need to lose weight before joining the military. Among them, 36.1% of new recruits need to lose 9 to 17 pounds, and the proportion of people who want to lose more than 18 pounds is as high as 40%.