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Friday, January 12th, 2018

Physically fit recruits for Army are hard to find. Especially in these states

Author:     Jim Michaels
Source:     USA TODAY
Publication Date:     6:07 p.m. ET Jan. 10, 2018
 Link: Physically fit recruits for Army are hard to find. Especially in these states
Stephan:   There are several ways to read this report, but when you get to the lick log I think what it is telling us is a familiar story: Republicans can't govern, and as a result the citizens of states governed by Republicans are sicker, have shorter lives, are poorer, less educated, have higher infant mortality, and maternal mortality, higher rates of illiteracy, poorer education, more incarceration, more racism, and on and on. Those are facts. It is a closed loop system. Ignorant sick, poorly educated people tend to be easy to manipulate with "value" issues -- read fear, hate, sexual dysfunction -- so they vote for Republicans who pass social policies that perpetuate all those social ills, and so it goes.

WASHINGTON — The Army’s problem of finding physically fit recruits at a time of rising obesity in the United States is especially acute in the South — where it traditionally draws a high percentage of soldiers, a study published Wednesday finds.

Army recruits from Southern states are generally in poorer physical condition than those from other parts of the country, concluded researchers at The Citadel, a military college in Charleston, S.C.

“This has a real impact on national security,” said Daniel Bornstein, a researcher who led the study.

The regional distinction also suggests that government policy can influence fitness, and the South may be falling behind the rest of the country. “Some of the greatest public health achievements have come as the result of state-level policy change,” the study found.

Eleven states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia — had among the highest rates of recruits who become injured during basic training.

The results reflect trends in the nation where Southern states generally have higher obesity rates. Adult obesity is 35% or higher in Alabama, Arkansas, […]

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