The Threat of Obesity: Our Nation’s Health, Safety and Security at Risk

By Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS
Health and Wellness Chairperson, STOP Obesity Alliance; 17th Surgeon General of the United States (2002-2006)

3/26/09

Throughout my time as U.S. Surgeon General, I fielded numerous questions on various health topics.  Perhaps the most unexpected answer I delivered during that time was when I was fielding questions about health-related terror threats at an event in the weeks following 9/11.

When asked what was one of the most important threats facing our nation, I said, “Obesity is the terror within.  Unless we do something about it, the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9/11 or any other terrorist attempt.”  Obesity contributes to millions of cases of chronic disease and premature death in our nation every year, more than any terror threat we have ever experienced.  In fact, overweight and obesity contribute to the onset and exacerbation of about a dozen chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer.  Obesity is an accelerator of chronic disease.

Unfortunately, obesity continues to undermine the strength of our nation.  Nearly two-thirds of American adults and nearly nine million children are overweight or obese.  The impact is felt in communities where families experience obesity-related diseases, our economy, our health care system, and even our children who are increasingly facing diseases that typically affect adults. 

There is an often overlooked consequence of the rise in obesity over the past two decades.  Obesity impacts our nation’s security.
 
During a recent appeal to the House Armed Services Committee, the Pentagon’s accessions policy director, Curtis Gilroy, cited the numerous challenges facing military recruitment efforts.  And, what was at the top of the list?  The declining pool of eligible candidates for service.  To be clear, there were numerous factors in the mix, but the most prominent ones mentioned included obesity and other health problems, including physical fitness.  Together, these factors have eliminated as much as three-quarters of all recruitment-age youth.  And, since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003, the obesity rate among U.S. troops has more than doubled.

Having devoted my career to both military and medical service, I’ve seen firsthand the impact of obesity.  I cannot understate the urgency of this situation:  Our inability to mobilize our nation’s great resources to eliminating the obesity epidemic threatens to undermine our health, our finances, and our military strength and national security.  If anything shifts our thinking about the government’s role in the obesity epidemic, this should be it.  Obesity prevention, treatment and control needs to be at the forefront of our national reform agenda. 

It’s time to stop thinking of obesity as an individual’s personal issue and start thinking of it as a personnel issue that has far reaching implications for the health and safety of our nation.  We all have a role to play, and I hope that you will join the STOP Obesity Alliance in combating our nation’s second leading cause of preventable death and disease in our nation.  Our security, our children, our nation are at stake.