German soldiers weight report

[kman]

I'm not trying to pick on German soldiers in particular...but in another thread housil mentioned beer in rations and that made me remember this article.

Found over at Blackfive.net:

German Soldiers in the 'Stan: too drunk to....
Posted By Blackfive

The Daily Mail Online has a story about German soldiers having weight problems in Afghanistan...why? Check this out:

They drink too much and they're too fat to fight, that's the damning conclusion of German parliamentary reports into the country's 3,500 troops stationed in Afghanistan.

While British and U.S. troops in the country face a strict ban on alcohol, their German comrades are allowed two pints a day.

The stunning statistics reveal that in 2007 German forces in northern Afghanistan drank 1.7million pints of beer and 90,000 bottles of wine.

The troops also downed 896,000 pints of beer in the first six months of this year, the Times reported...

For a little "balance", here's a Der Speigel article on the same subject:

TUBBY TEUTONS
German Soldiers Too Fat, Official Report Says
http://www.spiegel.de/international/ger ... 02,00.html

Some 40 percent of German soldiers are overweight, according to a parliamentary report presented on Tuesday. The report also says German military personnel smoke to much.

German soldiers are too fat, don't take enough exercise and smoke too much, according to an annual parliamentary report on the state of the country's armed services.

The report, due to be presented later on Tuesday, said that 40 percent of all army personnel are overweight, compared with 35 percent among civilians.

Some 8.5 percent of soldiers were even grossly overweight, the report said.

"Put simply: The soldiers are too fat, they don't take enough exercise and they're not careful enough about what they eat," lawmaker Reinhard Robbe, the parliament's commissioner for the armed forces, told a news conference.

"These are alarming results given that the army basically offers ideal facilities and each year spends 26 million euros on promoting elite sportsmen and women."

The problem was that this money wasn't having any impact on the general physical fitness of the troops, said Robbe. He called on Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung to ensure that the troops take more exercise.

Last year Robbe's report said barracks in western Germany were falling into disrepair, prompting the Defense Ministry to invest heavily in renovation.

[Stef]

they don't say how many bottles of wine a French soldier in Afghanistan can drink in a week??

[Garron]

How do i apply for German citizenship?... all the EPA's I could eat and alcohol... my idea of paradise

Alcohol in that heat... that would de-hydrate you even quicker, not a good idea.

Gaz

Edit...two pints?? for a country thats metric...don't think so... europe doesn't used Pints (a pint is is 568ml) they use 500ml for drinks... I tried in Vienna to get a pint...forgetting its metric, the guy serving looked at me as if I was stupid until I said "großes Bier bitte"
Once again newspapers get thier facts wrong.

o the joys of being stuck in the 19th century and still using imperial mesurments

[housil]

That´s right, ours "over there" are allowed to have "two beer" a day.
They can have them inside the camp, in the evening only!

Garron is right, we don´t know "a pint".

It´s usally a can with 330ml, same size as a Coke or Pepsi can! That´s just ~ one Pint.
So the writer was wrong saying "two pints" instead of just "two beer".

The size of a beer in Germany differs from state to state. Norther folks drink their beer out of a "test tube" (200ml), here in south Germany "a beer" is usally 400ml, "a Weizenbeer" (wheat beer) is 500ml, "a Stein" (= eine Maß) is 1liter (1000ml).

In our holi State of Bavaria , beer is a "staple food" like bread that nobody can forbid!


Offical report (in German) :

"...rund 990.000 Liter Bier (beer) und rund 69.000 Liter Wein (wine) und Sekt (sparkling wine)... in 2007"

That´s less than the allowed amout!
But we share our beer/wine etc. with troops of other countries in the same camp also!!!

[Garron]

The confusion comes from British beer cans range from 400ml - to 568ml (a pint) (Different brands different sizes)

I think when I was in Wien (Vienna) a Große (Large) beer was 500ml while klein (small) was 250ml,

A Stein.... now thats a mans drink! I have one in the cupboard from when I went to Germany in 2005,

[kman]

It's pretty simple over here - we have two sizes....12 ounce cans and 12 ounce bottles. Or, I guess if you're real thirsty, you could always grab a 40:


Source:

[housil]

Prost