‘Obesity Epidemic’ in Military Elicits Calls to Reform Diet of US Armed Forces: Expert

U.S. Marines line up on the beach after the amphibious landing exercise during the joint Cobra Gold exercise in the coastal Thai province of Chonburi on March 3, 2023. Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images

A report that nearly three out of every four active duty service members of the military are either overweight or obese is an indicator that the low-fat, high-carbohydrate food diet that for decades has been enforced by the United States Armed Forces needs to be scrapped, according to an expert.

Dr. Ken D. Berry, a family physician who has seen over 20,000 patients and specializes in health complications caused by the modern diet, told The Epoch Times that the reason behind the “obesity epidemic” facing the military isn’t a mystery.

‘Obesity Epidemic’

“If the military wants to have any hope of reversing the obesity epidemic, it needs to begin by completely getting rid of the current high carbohydrate guidelines forced on our service members that is the cause of the obesity in the first place,” said Dr. Berry.

“It should be obvious by now to everyone that it doesn’t work. Just look at the results,” he added.

For nearly five decades, the U.S. military has followed the controversial Dietary Guidelines for Americans that recommends a diet high in the grains and carbohydrates that have long been associated with weight gain. Significant ties to the food and pharmaceutical industry by members of the government agency tasked with establishing the dietary choices of hundreds of millions of school children, hospital patients, and countless others have raised concerns over whether the American diet has been corrupted.

According to a study authored by six researchers, including Nina Teicholz, an investigative author and science journalist, 95 percent of the members of the 2020 expert committee for the Dietary Guidelines Advisory panel—a group of 20 people who establish national nutrition programs, standards, and education on what constitutes a healthy diet—had conflicts of interest with the food or pharmaceutical industries.

“People are right to be alarmed,” Ms. Teicholz previously told The Epoch Times. “We are still seeing epidemic rates of obesity, diabetes, and many other diet-related diseases, which are crippling our national economy and our health. At the root of our problem is our dietary policy.”

However, with the weight of service members appearing to have reached a breaking point, concerns over the guidelines have spread to military preparedness.

Further, the obesity epidemic has also hindered the ability of the military to find recruits. More than one in three young adults aged 17–24 are “too heavy to serve in the military”; among the young adults who meet the weight requirements, only three out of four can meet the physical activity levels that prepare them for challenges in basic training, according to a report issued by the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC).

‘Difficulty in Recruiting Soldiers’

“The military has experienced increasing difficulty in recruiting soldiers as a result of physical inactivity, obesity, and malnutrition among our nation’s youth. Not addressing these issues now will impact our future national security,” retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said in the report.

In previous generations, the physical preparedness of the U.S. military was rarely, if ever, in question, as meat was believed to make better soldiers. During World War II, Americans at home were asked to plant Victory Gardens and consume more fruits and vegetables so that red meat could be saved for the troops abroad, believing that meat would give them the strength needed to win the war.

In the early 1980s, the diet of service members began to change, along with their waistlines, with the introduction of Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which by 1992 would advise 6–11 servings of grains per day along with severe restrictions on saturated fats found in meat.

In the years that followed, the rising weight of the service members would mirror that of the broader population. In 1980, 4.8 percent of men and 7.9 percent of women were obese. Those percentages jumped to 9.8 percent of men and 13.8 percent of women in 2008. In the most recent data available from the CDC, obesity has risen to 39.8 percent among adults aged 20 to 39 years, 44.3 percent among adults aged 40 to 59 years, and 41.5 percent among adults aged 60 and older.

High Carb Foods

Dr. Berry says that the high-carbohydrate foods fed to the U.S. military stimulate hunger mechanisms, increasing the intake of snacks and other unhealthy foods that contribute to obesity.

“I think that leadership in the military are trying to address the obesity epidemic, but they are following completely outdated advice that has absolutely no chance of working and is, in fact, only making the problem worse by causing more junk food cravings and producing flabby bodies unfit for combat,” said Dr. Berry.

However, the obesity epidemic currently plaguing our military can be easily remedied, according to Dr. Berry.

“You could reverse the obesity epidemic tomorrow if you gave soldiers lots of low carbohydrate options that have animal fats. They would start to lose weight immediately since they wouldn’t be hungry all the time because meat is full of nutrients that make it highly satiating,” he said.

“It’s been well known since the beginning of recorded history that the armies that ate the most meat would often be the most victorious.”