This week’s article of the week (AOW) is all about how America’s obesity epidemic is effecting our military. How bad is this epidemic? Only 17% of young Americans would qualify for active duty today. 

Almost 1/3 of all young people who sit down with a recruiter are instantly disqualified because they are obese.  This is the largest reason for disqualification.

This is alarming because interest in joining the military is decreasing and so is the size of the recruitable population.

A 2016 study found that “active duty soldiers with obesity were 33 percent more likely to suffer musculoskeletal injury, contributing to the more than 3.6 million injuries that occurred among active duty service members between 2008 and 2017.”

To learn more about how obesity is effecting our military listen to this week’s podcast. 

Link To Articles Mentioned 

America’s obesity is threatening national security, according to this study