Is It Time To Put Santa Claus On A Diet?

We came across this article the other day on The Huffington Post written by Dominique Mosbergen and titled “Santa Claus Obesity: Santa Is Getting Fatter, May Be Bad Influence On Children” and wanted to talk about it and get our readers take on it. In it she suggests that the image of Santa is getting fatter and fatter and this may have a negative affect on our children, their health and their diets.

Now more than ever thanks to Michelle Obama’s child obesity awareness campaign “Let’s Move” and other ways, there is a lot of attention on our children’s eating habits. But the question we took away from this article was:

“Does Santa’s appearance actually influence our kids eating habits?”

In the article Dominique reports that according to a recent report by ABC News, titled “Many Santas Are Now Ho Ho Ho-bese,” Santa Claus stand-ins seem to be getting fatter every year. Adele Saidy, owner of costume store Adele’s of Hollywood who has been designing Santa costumes for more than four decades, told the network that she’s observed an alarming trend in recent years as Santa suit sizes have continued to balloon.

“They are getting larger and larger,” she told ABC News. “Last year and this year, 25 percent of my Santas — oh, I don’t want to say it — they are really overweight.”

Another report in the Herald-Journal in 2004 reiterated this growing trend. Santasuits.com noted at the time that demand for larger Santa suits (up to 4XL) had been growing steadily.

In 2007, Steven K. Galson, who was then the acting U.S. surgeon general, declared that Santa should lose some weight.

“It is really important that the people who kids look up to as role models are in good shape, eating well and getting exercise… Santa is no different,” he told the Boston Herald at the time, according to Yahoo! News.

What do you think? Should we put Santa on a diet? Should future versions of Santa Claus be lean and mean because we are putting veggie trays and bottled water out versus Milk and Cookies?

Here at VacuPractor we are all about helping people with back pain and although a healthier diet and lower weight can certainly help, we think this may be taking things just a little too far.

Continue reading here: Lower Back Pain Stretches

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