Rich diet making many Guantanamo detainees fat
By Michael Melia, Associated Press | October 4, 2006
SAN JUAN -- A high-calorie diet combined with life in the cell block -- almost around the clock in some cases is making detainees at Guantanamo Bay fat.
Meals totaling a whopping 4,200 calories per day are brought to their cells, well above the 2,000 to 3,000 calories recommended for weight maintenance by US government dietary guidelines. And some inmates are eating everything on the menu.
One detainee has almost doubled in weight, to 410 pounds, said Navy Commander Robert Durand, spokesman for the detention facilities at Guantanamo, a Navy base in southeast Cuba.
Human rights groups attribute the weight gain to lack of exercise. They cite accounts of released detainees who complained they were allowed to exercise fewer than three times a week outside their small cells.
But Durand said detainees are simply served a wide variety of food and are expected to choose what appeals to them.
``The detainees are advised that they are offered more food than necessary, to provide choice and variety, and that consuming all the food they are offered will result in weight gain," he said.
Most of the prisoners at Guantanamo were slightly underweight when they arrived. Since then, they've gained an average of 20 pounds, and most are now ``normal to mildly overweight or mildly obese," according to the most recent measurements, he said.
The meals include meats prepared according to Islamic guidelines, along with fresh bread, vegetables and yogurt.
With nearly all detainees fasting in the daytime during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, authorities have arranged for a post-sunset meal and a midnight meal. Traditional desserts and honey also are served during the Ramadan observances.
Even two detainees who have been on a hunger strike for more than a year are at ``100 percent ideal body weight," from nutrients fed through tubes inserted in their noses, Durand said.
The calorie intake at Guantanamo is well above the norm for federal inmates in the United States, who receive about 2,900 calories a day, said US Bureau of Prisons spokesman Michael Truman.
He said weight gain in the civilian system is not widespread and that most inmates ``keep themselves in pretty good shape."
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Instead of discussing the absurd, why human rights groups are concerned that Gitmo detainees are too well fed, I have some absurd observations as to why fat terrorists are a good thing - seeing as how the left is doing all they can to get these guys released.
Fat terrorists are a good thing because:
1) Fat terrorists can't outrun pursuit
2) Potential hostages can outrun fat terrorists
3) Fat terrorists can't squeeze in and out of their cave
4) Fat terrorists are easier to spot by drone and satellite
5) A fat suicide bomber might absorb more of the blast, leading to fewer casualties and less collateral damage
6) Fat terrorists can't crawl under a car to plant explosives
7) Fat terrorists are at risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke, osteoarthritis, and sleep apnea - things that slow them down and contribute to a shorter life span
8) Fat terrorists have to work harder to hide behind human shields
9) You can only get so many fat terrorists in a 1985 Toyota Tercel
10) It's easier to chase down a fat terrorist in the aisle of a 747
Any more? |
