Obesity is a National Security Issue: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling at TEDxMidAtlantic 2012

"Feeding the difference." And in fact, we have redirected the Department of Defense universities toward our young people, and we call it "Feeding the Future." So we fixed it! Or we're going to fix it. The interesting thing about this is that our Army, along with our Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard, represent less than 1% of the American population. So my concern is: what about the other 99%? This brings me back to my point that this is a

national

security

concern. I'll show you one area and it's just

obesity

levels. This graph represents the number of states in the union that had average

obesity

rates below 20% among youth ages 14 to 19.

This was in 1985. Look what happens. As you can see in 2009, exponentially worse. These predictions for 2030: You can see how many states have more than 65% obese children. This is not overweight, it is obesity. Important now are questions about what the case told them about our infection rates and how much we pay to treat people. We agree that the Ministry of Health and Education jointly stated that they spend an average of between $150 billion and $200 billion a day to address the consequences of childhood obesity. We see an increase in diabetes. We estimate that we will have a 40% incidence of cardiovascular diseases by 2030.

This is important. It's a health care

issue

. Economic

issue

. The problem alerted me because I saw a group of recruits who were denied depending on it. I can't get them out to treat them. It's just a competitive question. There are other studies that show what obesity and inactivity affect young people. I think it's definitely a

national

security

issue. There are many organizations trying to achieve this. You may have heard of Mayor Bloomberg of New York, who banned all sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces in New York City schools and public restaurants and this was met with a lot of opposition.

Nike, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Subway use overweight actors in their advertisements to model behavior and potentially transform this. Last year on World Play Day, Nickelodeon decided to turn its screens black instead of showing shows to encourage kids to go outside and play. And, of course, the First Lady for the last few years has been trying to do a "Let's move!" and measures against obesity. This worries me. I care a lot. Once again I say my name is Hertling, I am a soldier. I was a soldier for 38 years. This is not something the military can solve.

It's not something you can put yellow tape on and say, "Let someone else take care of it." This is not something we can trust governments or organizations to do. Be brave with your schools. Be brave when trying to bring back nutrition in restaurants. Be brave to balance your life and go out and exercise. Be brave in modeling your behavior for young people. This will prevent many more like Charlie in the future. thank you so much. (applause)