The United States will invest $1 billion in the treatment of overweight military personnel. First Lady Michelle Obama proposed allocating the money. 60% of citizens of developed countries would do well to lose weight, doctors say.

Obesity threatens US national security. The Pentagon will spend more than $1 billion in a year on treating soldiers and officers for diseases caused by excess weight. The initiative belongs to the president's wife, Michelle Obama, who has been heading the healthy eating and fitness committee for two years.

Obesity really reduces defense capability, not only in the American army, but also in the Russian one, says Tatyana Romanenko, chief physician of the “Your Doctor” medical center.

“Of course, obesity is not just a national threat, it is a pandemic of the 21st century. Almost 60% of the population of developed countries suffer from some degree of excess body weight,” she says. “That is, the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases increases. These are the diseases that decimate the young, working population. If we are sick, we cannot work, increase the wealth of our country, or, if we are talking about the United States, for them it is the same national problem as for us."

There is no such problem in our army. Russian soldiers are more likely to be malnourished, says Viktor Myasnikov, a journalist for the Nezavisimoye Voennoye Obozreniye weekly.

“We don’t have such a problem among soldiers. Except among some of the officers. In the Russian army, despite all the good food, soldiers are often underfed,” he believes. “When warrant officers and conscript soldiers are in the warehouse and in the kitchen, there is theft and underinvestment.” .

In the United States, 25% of young people aged 17 to 24 are overweight.

"Obesity is the pandemic of the 21st century"