{"id":86185,"date":"2009-12-17T02:04:19","date_gmt":"2009-12-17T07:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blisstree.com\/?p=136146"},"modified":"2009-12-17T02:04:19","modified_gmt":"2009-12-17T07:04:19","slug":"santa-needs-a-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/86185","title":{"rendered":"Santa Needs a Makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

The current image of Santa promotes obesity<\/strong>, speeding and possibly “drink-driving,” complained Australian researcher and public health expert Dr. Nathan Grills. His work on Santa’s image was published online this month on BMJ.com<\/a>. The analysis is called Santa Claus: a public health pariah?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"santa-fat\"<\/p>\n

According to Grills, Santa is the only fictional character more highly recognized by American school kids than Ronald McDonald. And a recent study confirmed that Santa awareness<\/strong> is almost universal. With that kind of recognition, it stands to reason that perhaps Santa’s rotund figure could use some trimming down<\/a> to promote more healthful living. And maybe he could ride a bike instead of sitting in a sleigh powered by magic reindeer. Yet, who’s ready to mess with an icon? It’s like making the Cookie Monster less fond of cookies. Oh, that’s been done…<\/p>\n

Grills also argues that Santa has been used to promote harmful products, and he could also promote driving after drinking due to the tradition of leaving a brandy out for Santa. Other popular Santa treats include cookies<\/a> and mince pies — not exactly healthy either.<\/p>\n

Grills noted, “Santa only needs to affect health by 0.1% to damage millions of lives.” He’d like to see Santa’s popularity used to promote healthy living instead of magical laziness.<\/p>\n

Grills thinks more research on Santa’s influence is needed, but he’d like to see a slimmer Santa<\/strong> next year. Despite Santa’s faults, he does have some good points, like symbolizing the spirit of giving and helping to create a reverence for old guys.<\/p>\n

Do you think that Santa is bad for public health, or should he get a break?<\/p>\n

(Image via stock.xchng<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Post from: Blisstree<\/a><\/p>\n

Santa Needs a Makeover<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The current image of Santa promotes obesity, speeding and possibly “drink-driving,” complained Australian researcher and public health expert Dr. Nathan Grills. His work on Santa’s image was published online this month on BMJ.com. The analysis is called Santa Claus: a public health pariah? According to Grills, Santa is the only fictional character more highly recognized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}