Obesity In The Military Essay

Physical fitness is an integral part of the military’s culture, readiness and mission accomplishment. This article discusses that the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. military. The Army is leading the way with Soldiers considered as clinically overweight, followed by the Air force, Navy and the Marines. According from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, a person is clinically overweight or obese if they have a body mass index greater than 25. The Pentagon’s recent undisclosed data that is based on clinically result shows that this issue has broad implications for the health and readiness of today’s force that can lead to stall a career, involuntary separation and even safety hazard to the military mission.

The Pentagon health officials were very reluctant to undisclosed the health statistics that shows different insights of obesity problem and how it varies from service to service. After multiple requests from the Military Times, the Pentagon health officials provided specific data that shows the rate of overweight troops specifically within the Army, Navy, Air Force and

military and it is only getting worse. New BMI policies and strict or finer Army body weight regulations should be prioritized. Having a committee specifically for overweight people and focus on their progression, will be helpful to track if they still need to stay in the military or not. Unfortunately the military cannot reverse this epidemic alone, and contrary neither six weeks of basic training or everyday Physical Training cannot undo lifetime of bad eating habits for young men and women who wanted to serve and currently serving this country. With that in mind, I encourage communities, parents, families and friends to help understand our children to make healthy choices and staying fit is a vital part of