Fat American Pose A Threat to National Security

Increasing rates of obesity among young Americans could undermine the future of the US military, with potential recruits increasingly too fat to serve. "Obesity rates threaten the overall health of America and the future strength of our military," generals John Shalikashvili and Hugh Shelton, both former chairs of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a commentary.

Obesity disqualified more potential recruits for military service than any other medical factor, so the two generals urged Congress to adopt legislation that would ensure better nutrition in schools, offering children more vegetables, fruits and whole grains while cutting back on foods with high sugar, sodium and fat content.

"We consider this problem so serious from a national security perspective that we have joined more than 130 other retired generals, admirals and senior military in a non-profit group called "Mission: Readiness."

The US military faces a problem with troops already serving who are overweight, with some soldiers losing out on promotions because of their failure to meet fitness standards. The two retired generals endorsed a plan by President Barack Obama's administration to increase funding by one billion dollars a year over ten years for child nutrition programs. Investing in nutrition made sense as the country was already spending 75 billion dollars a year on medical costs associated with obesity, they said. .

"We must act, as we did after World War II, to ensure that our children can one day defend our country, if need be.

Physical and Mental Fitness for Military

Physical health is not the only important part of a soldiers training anymore. A new emotional resiliency training program is being implemented on all branches of the U.S. Army to ensure that they're mental and emotional health is in as good of shape as they're physical health.

Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum, PhD, MD, and director of the Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program is leading all 1.1 million soldiers to mental-health in hopes of preventing mental-health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and suicide as well as improving combat performance.

Increasing resiliency in the physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and family elements of a soldier is a way to catch mental illness before an occurrence. "The best way to treat a death by heart attack is not CPR. The best way is to prevent the heart attack. It's a lifestyle and culture change. And that's how we should look at mental health. Look at it with a preventative model and enhanced health model, not a 'waiting-until-we-need-therapy model,'" says Cornum.

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