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Comments by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

This comic is a continuing of Santa's ongoing diabetes challenge. Click here to see the previous comic.

The point of this comic is not make fun of Santa or obese people (I used to be nearly obese myself), but rather to point out that everyone needs to exercise in order to be healthy -- even folks like Santa Claus who seem to be immortal. (Does he ever really age?)

As this comic series continues, you'll see Santa struggle with some of the same things we all struggle with when it comes to exercise, motivation and diet. Just like many of us, Santa doesn't want to exercise if he doesn't have to. But clearly he has a health challenge with his body weight, and he's going to have to make some radical changes to bring his body back to a state of health.

As you'll see in upcoming comics, his reindeer have also volunteered to help him with his exercise plan, including some cross-training, coaching and motivation strategies (watch for subsequent comics in this Santa Claus series).

Since I published the first Santa comic, some people have complained that Santa is a "sacred" figure and he cannot be used for entertainment purposes. Okay, that's a strange one. The Santa mythology is actually open source. Nobody owns the patent on Santa Claus (although I'm sure some corporations would love to!)

This isn't entertainment anyway: it's primarily education. And I'm sure Santa would be more than happy to lend his story to any effort that helps educate adults and children about the importance of good health. I use the Santa mythology to teach an important point about wellness.

What I object to is the use of Santa for rampant commercialism. To the corporations that sell consumer goods, Santa is the Saint of Commercial Profits. Many retailers earn half of each year's profits in the shopping season between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And they invoke Santa Claus at every opportunity in order to get consumers to whip out their credit cards and spend, spend, spend!

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