Obesity is a National Security Issue: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling at TEDxMidAtlantic 2012

For a second I thought your username was sharpshooter but then it got even better as I re-read it. Thankyou for the laugh. In 2012 Lieutenant General Mark Hertling had a TED talk [1] about this very issue and I think it still very much applies today. [1] - ▶ this video [video][16m][TED-Talk]

Adding to this the military was recognizing this issue prior to 2012 and I can't imagine the situation has improved outside of the military . [1] In my opinion the video is worth a watch even to those using a cellphone. [1] - ▶ this video [video][16m][ted talk with Lieutenant General Mark Hertling]

Disclaimer: DailyMail hypes things up and makes them click-baity but the meat of the article is still relevant I think and probably a topic that needs some real solutions. In my opinion obesity could have an existential threat to national security and health care costs of all first world countries regardless of who is paying for it. The US was the first to fully embrace high fructose corn syrup, highly processed foods, seed oils, etc... but other nations are right behind us. Here [1] is General Hertling discussing some challenges around this topic from 2012. [1] - ▶ this video [video][16 mins]

The military are already having a very difficult time recruiting people. Not for a lack of interest but for a lack of physical qualification. [1] This behavior will not help them get more people. I foresaw something like this when I served and had to fight them on DNA collection. I neither won nor lost but I stalled them long enough to get out. That was my commander's idea. It went all the way to Al Gore via FoIA and came back down as several boxes of paperwork that were worded more vague than a car commercial as to what the data/dna could be used for, how long they could keep it and who would have access to it . [1] - ▶ this video [video][16 mins]

Fast food burgers are surely nowhere near as healthy as breadless home made burgers with grass-fed non-gmo meats but I would put the bigger risk on the associated High Fructose Corn Syrup drinks and oil cooked fries. Shaming people usually backfires whereas some states have had some success with taxing high fructose corn syrup drinks. Given that the long term health effects of fast food ultimately affect the national economy, national health budgets and national security, this is one rare case I believe a sin-tax makes sense provided that tax goes to health care. Diabetes alone will likely bankrupt most first world countries. [1][2] Why national security? For starters, the US military is finding it very difficult to recruit healthy people that can even pass their simple physical requirements. [3] [1] - link [2] - link [video][9 mins, t-shirt may be NSFW] [3] - ▶ this video [video][16 mins]

>>>>"Most" boys play some kind of sport. I have to assume it's the vast majority. There was a TED Talk a few years back from a US Army General about how the terrible physical fitness of America's youth is becoming a national security problem.[1] I think the "low quality" of adolescent males over the past 2 decades is partly behind the push for more women in the military: we have so few physically-fit high-testosterone males that we have to cast a wider net and recruit physically-fit, comparatively-high-T females; they are better than soft fatbody guys. If boys were seriously engaged in sports at the rates that you are suggesting, teen obesity shouldn't be so widespread. [1] ▶ this video