Quaffing beer and eating sausages

Last year, the German armed forces shipped more than 260,000 gallons of home-brewed suds to its troops serving in northern Afghanistan, as well as more than 18,000 gallons of wine. On a per-soldier basis, that was the equivalent of a ration of 26 ounces of beer a day, all year long.

OK, there is a down side to all that beer:

In March, an armed forces report found that more than 40 percent of soldiers ages 18 to 29 were overweight -- compared with 35 percent of German civilians of the same age. About 70 percent of the soldiers were heavy smokers. Nearly one in 10 was described as clinically obese. The March report concluded that the rank and file quaffed too much beer and ate too many sausages, while avoiding fruit and vegetables.

However, US Soldiers manage to be overweight and smoke heavily, even though they can't have beer, so how could harm a few daily ounces of beer be that much worse? We don't eat much sausage, but people eat burgers and ice cream for lunch here, and that can't be good.