FBI: 80 percent of U.S. law enforcement officers are overweight

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FBI: 80 percent of U.S. law enforcement officers are overweight
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The cops and doughnuts stereotype may actually be true, as a new study from the FBI indicates that 80 percent of law enforcement officers in the U.S. are overweight. Police are also heavier on average than most Americans: While the U.S. leads the world in obesity, only two-thirds of the general population is overweight or obese, compared to law enforcement's 80 percent.

As a result, police officers are 25 times more likely to die from weight-related cardiovascular disease than from interaction with a criminal.

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Bonnie Kristian
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.