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Study: Students consume 400 billion calories from junk food sold in schools

Retired military officers say kids too overweight to join armed forced

October 9, 2012

1 Min Read
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Mission: Readiness is a nonprofit, non-partisan group of retired military officers who are concerned that the food we’re feeding to children is rendering them too sickly and too overweight to be assemble competitive, competent armed forces. “Still To Fat To Fight” is a follow-up to the 2010 report, “Too Fat To Fight,” which illustrates the fact that, in the last two years, things have not gotten better.

Here are just some of the findings in the report:

  • 1 in 4 American students is just too overweight to join the military

  • The Department of Defense spends over $1 billion of taxpayer money on “weight-related diseases” annually.

  • American students consume almost 400 billion calories from junk food sold in their schools alone each year. That doesn’t account for snacking at home, or food purchased at convenience stores.

  • Junk food calories served in schools to students equal more than the weight of an aircraft carrier.

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