Army leaders say the issues with recruitment are an amalgamation of barriers getting applicants into the ranks, topped by the high percentage of Americans in prime recruiting age simply being unqualified for service. Army planners estimate only about 23% of 17- to 24-year-olds can meet the service's expectations, with many applicants failing the military's SAT-style entrance exam or being too overweight to serve.
Figures for childhood obesity, both in the US and the UK are alarming.
In the UK...NHS figures show that about 1 in 5 children in reception are overweight or very overweight, rising to 1 in 3 in year 6.
In the US...Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States, putting children and adolescents at risk for poor health. Obesity prevalence among children and adolescents is still too high.
For children and adolescents aged 2-19 years in 2017-20201:
The prevalence of obesity was 19.7% and affected about 14.7 million children and adolescents.
Obesity prevalence was 12.7% among 2- to 5-year-olds, 20.7% among 6- to 11-year-olds, and 22.2% among 12- to 19-year-olds. Childhood obesity is also more common among certain populations.
Fat kids turn into fat adults.
Blame the parents, the internet, the lack of sports in most schools, high sugar content in foods we eat, general eating habits...it all adds up to obesity.
Figures for childhood obesity, both in the US and the UK are alarming.
In the UK...NHS figures show that about 1 in 5 children in reception are overweight or very overweight, rising to 1 in 3 in year 6.
In the US...Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States, putting children and adolescents at risk for poor health. Obesity prevalence among children and adolescents is still too high. For children and adolescents aged 2-19 years in 2017-20201:
The prevalence of obesity was 19.7% and affected about 14.7 million children and adolescents. Obesity prevalence was 12.7% among 2- to 5-year-olds, 20.7% among 6- to 11-year-olds, and 22.2% among 12- to 19-year-olds. Childhood obesity is also more common among certain populations.
Fat kids turn into fat adults. Blame the parents, the internet, the lack of sports in most schools, high sugar content in foods we eat, general eating habits...it all adds up to obesity.
And then the kids who aren't fat are too stupid.
We spend a shit load in this country on education and yet the kids graduate poorly informed. Well, except on how to make a TikTok video.
Kids neeed pushing. If they are allowed to slump in front of a screen for endless hours, plus eating crap and not socialising...they will be more likely to be fat AND stupid when they reach adulthood.
I do believe that fat people should be required to pay a higher rate of national insurance to cover their medical care. Otherwise we are all shelling out. Same with smokers.
But of course you daren‘t say it for fear of the cops !
The fat actually started piling up in the early 70's.
Wasn't really noticeable at first but food started to change back then and the rise in body weight can actually be seen on graphs of the time lagging behind the food change but mirroring it.
We started to get fat free low fat no fat products and a voiceover of fat is bad fat makes you fat.
Well it turns out to have largely been industry bullshit. Diet magazines pushing the industrialised low fat message.
The fat was replaced by sugar to give us a flavour experience that had become mostly absent with the fat.
Fat doesn't make you fat sugar makes you fat!
At the same time there was a huge increase in highly processed foods that contained an ever growing concoction of chemicals that could never be and still can't be properly tested for their effects on health and obesity because there is no scientific way of measuring which chemicals we're mixing up with each other and how often. Everyone is different too making it even harder. Some people can eat more or less anything and never be affected.This is far worse in America.
For the last few years I've been an avid label reader and can even whip out a magnifying glass to read what they purposefully blur with bad colouring.
My motto is if it sounds scientific don't buy it. If it doesn't roll off my tongue don't buy it. If it sounds like I need a chemical index with my magnifying glass don't buy it.
If there's one food item... lets say potatoes and then a long list of scientific stuff that I am not familiar with I don't buy it... I class these items as food like substances. They are trying to sell me a food like substance not food. I'm not buying it.
In my house we probably eat around 70% healthy home cooking and thirty percent industrial products like shredded wheat mass produced bacon tinned and packet goods.
I think the most obvious crap thing I eat is a couple of pot noodles a week I just love them for snacks.
But modern factory food has now mostly taken over feeding households in the UK.
Through the lock downs I actually spent quite a bit of time talking to my daughter and helping her in little ways to cook real home made food for her family and wow has she changed her habits!
She a good little cook now and the kids appreciate it.
We never ate the kind of food available now way back. My mum cooked from scratch, and we only had sweets and crisps at the weekends. Also we walked everywhere. Food started going downhill in the early eighties. There was a plethora of fad diets and the myth that fat is bad for you. Fat isn't the culprit. The culprit is carbs and sugar. Carbs on their own turn to sugar in the body. Plus refined carbs and processed foods create inflammation in the body.
As we age, we expect to get heavier. But there's no excuse when you're young because you have the energy and metabolism to burn off weight very quickly.
It's a dreadful state of affairs that todays kids will not see old age at this rate.
The fat actually started piling up in the early 70's.
Wasn't really noticeable at first but food started to change back then and the rise in body weight can actually be seen on graphs of the time lagging behind the food change but mirroring it.
We started to get fat free low fat no fat products and a voiceover of fat is bad fat makes you fat.
Well it turns out to have largely been industry bullshit. Diet magazines pushing the industrialised low fat message.
The fat was replaced by sugar to give us a flavour experience that had become mostly absent with the fat.
Fat doesn't make you fat sugar makes you fat!
At the same time there was a huge increase in highly processed foods that contained an ever growing concoction of chemicals that could never be and still can't be properly tested for their effects on health and obesity because there is no scientific way of measuring which chemicals we're mixing up with each other and how often. Everyone is different too making it even harder. Some people can eat more or less anything and never be affected.This is far worse in America.
For the last few years I've been an avid label reader and can even whip out a magnifying glass to read what they purposefully blur with bad colouring.
My motto is if it sounds scientific don't buy it. If it doesn't roll off my tongue don't buy it. If it sounds like I need a chemical index with my magnifying glass don't buy it.
If there's one food item... lets say potatoes and then a long list of scientific stuff that I am not familiar with I don't buy it... I class these items as food like substances. They are trying to sell me a food like substance not food. I'm not buying it.
In my house we probably eat around 70% healthy home cooking and thirty percent industrial products like shredded wheat mass produced bacon tinned and packet goods.
I think the most obvious crap thing I eat is a couple of pot noodles a week I just love them for snacks.
But modern factory food has now mostly taken over feeding households in the UK.
Through the lock downs I actually spent quite a bit of time talking to my daughter and helping her in little ways to cook real home made food for her family and wow has she changed her habits!
She a good little cook now and the kids appreciate it.
Sorry about that I didn't mean to hide, me rollup.
Who did America gain its independence from...Christopher Columbus What year did America gain its independence?...1974 and another one What year did America gain its independence?... Not 1942 cos that was Christopher Columbus What's your major?...I'm going into teaching What's the capital of the US...Madison Where was the Vietnam war fought?...umm, hmm ...don't know, I'm in history class What happened during WW2?...The Boston tea party Who won the civil war?...The US How many world wars were there?...Three In what city did American colonists throw tea into the habour?...England Where is Pearl Habour?...Honolulu
It reminds me of another video I watched where a couple of American girls were asked Where does the Queen of England come from...Canada If you earn $1000 a month, how much would you earn in 12 month?...No idea, I'm not good at maths
Some of the old teaching methods worked a lot better than the present ones.
We were made to recite the times tables over and over...decades later I don't need a calculator to work out what 8x12 or 7x13 is...it's ingrained in the brain.
We didn't have the internet, mobile phones etc to do a quick check...we had to get off our arses and go to the library, or ask a teacher or parent...we put effort into finding out something and it tends to stay in the head.
There was only one fat girl in my class....the other 30 odd were skinny. Sugary drinks and foods were a treat not the norm...and like Digger said, we walked everywhere, and we played out rather than sat in.
Who did America gain its independence from...Christopher Columbus What year did America gain its independence?...1974 and another one What year did America gain its independence?... Not 1942 cos that was Christopher Columbus What's your major?...I'm going into teaching What's the capital of the US...Madison Where was the Vietnam war fought?...umm, hmm ...don't know, I'm in history class What happened during WW2?...The Boston tea party Who won the civil war?...The US How many world wars were there?...Three In what city did American colonists throw tea into the habour?...England Where is Pearl Habour?...Honolulu
It reminds me of another video I watched where a couple of American girls were asked Where does the Queen of England come from...Canada If you earn $1000 a month, how much would you earn in 12 month?...No idea, I'm not good at maths
Looks like Americas future looks bright
What's crazy is the typical immigrant from a third world country knows these things. And people that become citizens have to pass a test much harder than this.
Someone tried to tell me it's a lack of funding. We still spend as much as anyone on education. It just doesn't get spent on things that actually educate.
And of course we don't want to be too hard on these kids that don't learn. That would be mean.