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Building strength through starvation
By Trent Loos I have absolutely no understanding of how our current leadership in Washington intends to secure our country and give our fighting warriors the tools they need for success based on the recent actions of both Obamas in the White House. It's not bad enough that Michelle has taken over the school lunch program, now she is planning to "beef up" our military by force-feeding them vegetables and fruits. I have nothing against vegetables and fruits but let's take a look at what is really going on here. Mrs. Obama wants to cut fat from the diets of servicemen and women because she believes their obesity is the biggest problem and they should be setting the standards for the rest of the country in terms of their diets. According to her recent speech in Little Rock, their obesity is "an issue of national security." I have been fortunate enough to be on numerous military bases in the past several years with the All American Beef Battalion and I have yet to see one single overweight service person! Perhaps she is not aware of the most severe problem facing our military, which happens to be mental illness. Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome accounts for $1.5 to 2.7 billion dollars in medical expenses. In troops returning from deployment, 30 percent face mental issues within the first four months of their return from their tour of duty. What happens to those numbers if we reduce fat in the diet? University of Bristol research has clearly linked depression in kids with deficiencies in Vitamin D. This is also true with our military where many are seeking ways to combat this troublesome illness that destroys people, families and communities. Cholesterol is a precursor of Vitamin D so by developing low-fat, low-cholesterol diets, Obama is robbing our soldiers of the nutrients their bodies need for mental health and giving them even more to overcome on their return to life on American soil. Lard just happens to be the second best dietary source of Vitamin D and I'm pretty sure they don't use that to cook with on base. Army Ranger Corey Smith recently walked from Georgia to Indiana to help bring awareness to the fact that 18 veterans a day are committing suicide in this country. We don't need to be focusing as much on the physical health of these dedicated volunteers as we do the mental challenges they face because of their intense and demanding careers. Obama praised the troops as she looked into the group and told them, "You must be eating your vegetables!" While vegetables and fruits do provide many vitamins for the body, they do not provide amino acids necessary for building protein and thus muscle. Yes, Popeye claimed to be strong because of his spinach but as any proponent of the beef industry could tell you, you need to eat six servings of spinach to get the iron you get from one serving of nutrient-dense beef. The zinc, iron and protein in beef, combined with the heart healthy omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, provide not only for improvements in physical health but mental health as well. Meanwhile, back at the White House, Michelle's husband was helping protect our national security by announcing nearly $500 billion dollars in cuts to the Department of Defense while promising to "maintain our military superiority." Few details have been made available as to how you can gut spending and still provide the resources needed to operate a strong military that can guarantee the country's security. So here you have it. The White House's plan to starve the military financially and literally starve the bodies of the soldiers by force-feeding them fruits and vegetables because milk, meat and eggs just aren't in line with the Obama's vision of a healthy nation. Meanwhile, China just announced that they are ramping up all phases of their military. So let's see where this leaves us. Our borders are wide open, our fighting men and women are expected to work on empty stomachs and provide their own equipment while rogue nations around the world are gearing up to kick our butts. Things are not looking good for the home team. Perhaps Mrs. Obama should change the name of her campaign from "Let's Move" to "Let's Move Out of the White House" before our country can't even protect its own people! Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or email Trent at trent@loostales.com.
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