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Is Childhood Obesity a Threat to National Security?
Yes, you’re really seeing “obesity” and “national security” in the same sentence.
Mission: Readiness, an organization composed of retired admirals and generals, recently reported that an alarming 75 percent of all young adults aged 17 to 24 are not qualified to join the military.
Many young adults are not eligible to become men in uniform because they either fail to graduate from high school or have criminal records. But the MAIN reason is obesity.
Child obesity rates have more than tripled in the past three decades. Now, one in three children, 10 to 17, is overweight or obese; and 27 percent of young adults, 17 to 24, are too heavy to join the services.
As a result, roughly 15,000 prospective recruits flunk the physical entrance exam because they are too overweight.
Dr. Joseph Mercola believes that fructose, a cheap sugar commonly used in processed food products and soft drinks, is one of the culprits in the obesity epidemic, both in children and adults.
Today, more than 50 percent of manufactured foods and beverages are sweetened using fructose in the form of high fructose corn syrup. This sweetener is found in soda, the number one source of calories in America.
How Fructose is Making Americans Fat
Every cell in your body uses glucose or blood sugar, Dr. Mercola explains. Glucose is immediately burned up immediately after you consume it. When you eat 120 calories of sugar in the form of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat.
But fructose is a completely different story. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat, Mercola warns. Your body converts fructose into free fatty acids, LDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat. Consuming 120 calories of sugar in the form of fructose means you store 40 calories as fat!
Studies show that soda and sugar-sweetened drinks increase the risk of obesity in children. And because high fructose corn syrup is also found in many processed foods, that further increases the chances of your children regularly consuming this dangerous sugar.
Why Kids Should Not Consume High Fructose Corn Syrup
Studies and estimates show that:
- Obese children are more than twice as likely to die before the age of 55 than children with a healthy weight
- Obese teenage girls are more likely to die between ages 36-56 than their normal weight peers
- Moderately obese teen girls increase their risk of death in adulthood by 50 percent
- Obese teens more than double their mortality risks compared to their slimmest peers
Yes, having more obese children and young adults may affect the military’s recruitment in the long run but more importantly, as they mature, obesity is exposing them to diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease, robbing them of a chance to live healthy and happy lives.
As a Parent, What Can You Do About It?
Changing your lifestyle will help you and your family achieve your ideal weights. You should keep your fructose consumption to under 25 grams per day by avoiding fructose-rich fruits, fruit juices and soda.
Check what your kids are eating at the school cafeteria. Better yet, prepare their meals at home so you can be sure that they’ll be eating healthy even when they’re at school.
Exercising as a family is also a step to the right direction. You can go for walks, bike rides, teach them how to swim or skate, the activities are only limited by your imagination. Limit their time in front of the television and playing videogames because a sedentary lifestyle compounds obesity woes.
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Tags: childhood obesity, Dr. Joseph Mercola, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, mercola, sedentary lifestyle
