Several hundred retired military leaders are raising red flags about childhood obesity in the USA and its impact on finding qualified recruits. They want junk food to be booted out of schools.

Mission: Readiness, a group of more than 300 retired generals and admirals, says in a report out today that the 40% of students who buy high-calorie, low-nutrient junk food from school vending machines and cafeteria a la carte lines consume an average of 130 calories a day from those types of foods (candy, chips, cookies, pastries). That's roughly 5% to 10% of the calories kids and teens should eat in a day.

Three-quarters of those ages 17 to 24, or about 26 million young people, cannot serve in the military, a quarter of them because they are overweight or obese, says retired Air Force lieutenant general Norman Seip, a spokesman for Mission: Readiness.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Dieting/Food/Nutrition • Health & Medicine • Teens / Youth • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life

1. mbgentsch wrote: I’m delighted to see senior officers taking the lead.  Civilians know the military as a fighting force, but it’s easy to underestimate how important the mil is a a cultural shaping force.  I saw many lives turned around through paternalistic and even sometimes maternalistic military culture.  They’re saying things that need to be said and broadcast far and wide.  G-d bless ‘em and bless the mil. mbgentsch/26 years in this man’s navy September 26, 9:34 pm | [comment link]

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