Poor childhood nutrition is one of the most critical problems that threatens the health, productivity, and even national security of America.

Time was, during the mobilization of young men that accompanied World Wars I and II, a high percentage of recruits were underweight and undernourished; they had to be fattened up on military fare to meet the basic physical requirements of combat-readiness.

Now, the armed forces face the opposite problem: too many volunteers are overweight and can’t pass increasingly lenient tests of endurance and stamina. The term “hunger” has been supplanted by “food insecurity”, which means that too many impoverished American families aren’t starving, but don’t have consistent access to good quality food.

The result: “Rates of new diagnosed cases of type 1 and type 2 diabetes are increasing among youth in the United States, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine (Incidence Trends of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes among Youths, 2002-2012).