An article was recently published in The Hill entitled Nutrition: The national security threat no one is talking about that I feel compelled to comment on. Even though at least one of the authors is an esteemed medical professional in the armed forces, I think the article fatally misconstrues how the health and fitness challenges we face in the military intersect with politics thereby totally missing the big picture. That said, I suppose I might as well start at the beginning.
Oct 8, 2023·edited Oct 8, 2023Liked by Grant Smith
Agreed both ad nauseum and infinitum. The military and government will not be the ones to solve this problem, a bottom-up culture of like minded professionals will. Until you can tell your buddy "Really? Burger King AGAIN for lunch?!" and he actually changes his ways, not much is going to get fixed top-down.
However, there are better things that could feed into this from the top. Look at how we train Soldiers right now. If the training methods demanded that people eat to perform their best, they would have to do so. But the truth is that junk food is high octane crap for people exhausted from running so much. The ready-to-go line in the DFAC is the longest line, even when the Soldiers are strapped for time to eat. If they'd rather eat a burger and fully-leaded green Monster, it seems like they're willing to make sacrifices to do so (not to mention their budget). The culture from the bottom looks like the only way.
Being a reformed ultra-runner, I can say you're also correct that the training goals matter. How many people have we seen get a MSK injury and get fat afterwards because they kept their diet the same as when the infantry made them run 30 miles per week (thus leading to the injury). It's a fucked up sort of self-licking ice cream cone. Until the impact of the education (more than the info itself) gets to Joe, nothing the experts or Sergeants or regulations or even Generals is going to change a damn thing. Horses being led to water.
This probably sounds more like commiserating with you than providing anything meaningful, but thank you for giving me an outlet for this topic either way.
While agreeing with everything else, it seems reasonable to me to put quite a bit of blame on official government food pyramids and plates. These recommendations have spread all over and definitely change what people eat. The drop in trust of government and official scientists may have the salutary effect of reducing automatic acceptance of bad advice.
It may not be possible to attain healthy nutrition in the US military. I can't imagine that they buy anything but commercial grade foodstuffs.
Have a look at Stephanie Seneff's "Toxic Legacy" to see some of the residues available in commercial grade food and consider the metabolic damage that we endure. Fortunately most of the enlisted recruits are out within 20 years so the real cost is borne by the VA.
Also it is worth viewing the Epoch Times documentary "No Farmers, No Food." There is an ongoing attempt to reduce the private production of food in western countries and move farmers off the land as part of "The Great Reset." There are some concerns about the toxicity of chitin in our planned 2030 diet.
Agreed both ad nauseum and infinitum. The military and government will not be the ones to solve this problem, a bottom-up culture of like minded professionals will. Until you can tell your buddy "Really? Burger King AGAIN for lunch?!" and he actually changes his ways, not much is going to get fixed top-down.
However, there are better things that could feed into this from the top. Look at how we train Soldiers right now. If the training methods demanded that people eat to perform their best, they would have to do so. But the truth is that junk food is high octane crap for people exhausted from running so much. The ready-to-go line in the DFAC is the longest line, even when the Soldiers are strapped for time to eat. If they'd rather eat a burger and fully-leaded green Monster, it seems like they're willing to make sacrifices to do so (not to mention their budget). The culture from the bottom looks like the only way.
Being a reformed ultra-runner, I can say you're also correct that the training goals matter. How many people have we seen get a MSK injury and get fat afterwards because they kept their diet the same as when the infantry made them run 30 miles per week (thus leading to the injury). It's a fucked up sort of self-licking ice cream cone. Until the impact of the education (more than the info itself) gets to Joe, nothing the experts or Sergeants or regulations or even Generals is going to change a damn thing. Horses being led to water.
This probably sounds more like commiserating with you than providing anything meaningful, but thank you for giving me an outlet for this topic either way.
While agreeing with everything else, it seems reasonable to me to put quite a bit of blame on official government food pyramids and plates. These recommendations have spread all over and definitely change what people eat. The drop in trust of government and official scientists may have the salutary effect of reducing automatic acceptance of bad advice.
Get fit? Sounds great!
So you can die in globalist wars?
Get fucked.
It may not be possible to attain healthy nutrition in the US military. I can't imagine that they buy anything but commercial grade foodstuffs.
Have a look at Stephanie Seneff's "Toxic Legacy" to see some of the residues available in commercial grade food and consider the metabolic damage that we endure. Fortunately most of the enlisted recruits are out within 20 years so the real cost is borne by the VA.
Also it is worth viewing the Epoch Times documentary "No Farmers, No Food." There is an ongoing attempt to reduce the private production of food in western countries and move farmers off the land as part of "The Great Reset." There are some concerns about the toxicity of chitin in our planned 2030 diet.