Santa is a bad role model for children and needs to lose weight, according to a wide-spread sentiment that has even reached the professional Santa community. A sample:
As the obesity epidemic has swollen, some public health experts have cast an increasingly critical eye on Santa's sprawl. Two years ago, acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson said Santa's corpulence was setting a bad example. His remarks prompted howls of protest, with more than a few people accusing Galson of being politically correct in trying to make Santa physiologically correct.
An opposing expert opinion comes from Andrea Vazzana, a psychologist who specializes in weight management at New York University's Child Study Center. She says a svelte Santa "would be great for Santa, but I don't think children would benefit. The children who are believers in Santa, in that age range, they don't have a whole lot of say in what they eat."
UPDATE: In answer to Dan Kempin, a forensic reconstruction of the physically fit, non-smoking, fur-free Santa:
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