THE TELEGRAPH: A new report has forced Germany to admit that many of its soldiers are not lean killing machines but overweight chainsmokers.
The government-sponsored study indicated that over 40 percent of German soldiers were overweight and 70 percent were heavy smokers who did not engage in regular exercise.
Almost nine percent of professional soldiers, some of whom are involved in dangerous overseas missions such as the one in Afghanistan, were found to be clinically obese. Over 27 percent admitted to never engaging in sports or other physical activities.
Reinhold Robbe, the German Army Ombudsman, who coordinated the study and whose job is to provide civilian oversight of the armed forces, said: "Plainly put, the soldiers are too fat, do too little sport and take little care of their diet. The revelations are alarming."
The study, published on Tuesday, sparked a public outcry and calls for a parliamentary debate. Its authors blame a "passive lifestyle" practiced in the Bundeswehr or the Federal Army, as well as a bad diet and a wrong approach to fitness and health.
Instead of fruits and vegetables, the soldiers' diet included fat-rich sausages, the preferred fast-food of Germans, as well as large quantities of beer. The bureaucracy troops were left to deal with on daily basis was also quoted as a factor that contributed to their "alarmingly" poor form. The new-look German army: Fat chainsmokers >>> By Bojan Pancevski in Vienna
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
