 Here's a Merry Christmas to all the selfnews readers from the Health Ranger. And yes, I do specifically mean Merry Christmas. I don't mean just 'Happy Holidays' or 'happy winter break' or even 'happy end-of-year time off.' What I mean is Merry Christmas. That's the holiday name I grew up with and I'm sticking to it. :-) On this merry Christmas, I feel compelled to comment about the ongoing effort to sterilize the English language by removing any words that might dare to impart meaning. I've read reports that certain people feel 'offended' by the term Christmas, and I've watched as public schools have morphed their own descriptions of the Christmas break, removing the word 'Christmas' and replacing it with 'Holiday' as in 'Holiday break' or 'winter break.' The politically-correct language police have, once again, gone too far. This effort to sterilize the language of Christmas only serves to dumb down the children and remove any real meaning from words so that nobody might choose to feel offended by them. Words that say nothing, it seems, are more acceptable in our modern world where political correctness trumps authentic communication. The problem with this approach is that when you sterilize the language, you also remove most of the meaning from the words, leaving an empty shell of strung-together syllables that are designed to say absolutely nothing. Imagine the boss uttering the following at the office Christmas party: 'We are calling this meeting to ascertain the various aspects of this particular time of the year which has been noted by some as deriving itself from an embracing of a period of non-work during which some small gifts may be voluntarily exchanged among persons who optionally feel they wish to do so, but no such gift may exceed a value of twenty dollars, and no gifts may be exchanged that have any particular connotation or personal intent.' This is the sterile, idiotic language environment in which much of America is now suffocating. Use words to communicate, not to placate When it comes to words, you really have two choices: Choice #1) Say nothing . Bite your tongue, sterilize your words, surrender to political correctness and live your life as an entirely ineffectual and spineless word weasel (you can also run for Congress if you're any good at this...) Choice #2) Say what you mean . Use words with purpose while running the risk that somebody somewhere will have an issue with your words, but so what? If people decide to feel offended from your uttering of a holiday name, that's their choice -- NOT your responsibility. This is more of a Jesse Ventura approach. I obviously selected choice #2 many years ago, which is why today I'm saying Merry Christmas . And for those who don't observe the Christmas holiday, Happy Holidays to you! Give yourself the gift of good health One of the best gifts you can give yourself this Christmas, by the way, is the gift of good health. And here at selfnews, we're here to help you accomplish that: In a few days, I'm going to be publishing a list of 50 ways to improve your health in 2010. But if you're a regular reader of selfnews, you probably already know most of what's going to be on that list, so I encourage you to find a balance this year between having a fun celebration and keeping your diet as healthy as possible at the same time. And I'll let you in on a little secret: For a very special occasion like Christmas , I'll even eat some homemade sweets if they're offered to me by family or friends. If you follow a super healthy diet most of the year, there's no harm in relaxing a bit and enjoying some of the more celebratory foods during the holiday season / Christmas season. You don't have to eat just salads and superfoods every single day of the year, you know! But if you do eat some of the more sugared-up, processed foods that you know aren't good for you, use the same defense I do: Chow down some chlorella, spirulina or blue-green algae before you eat the more junky stuff, and you'll go a long way towards protecting yourself from the worst effects of not-so-healthy food. There's a lot of stuff I wouldn't dare touch during a Christmas dinner -- the Christmas ham, for example. Not for me, no thanks! But for the stuff I will eat, like homemade Christmas cookies, they're always accompanied by superfoods, including astaxanthin , resveratrol, oregano oil, berry tinctures or medicinal herbs. So enjoy your Christmas! (Or your holiday, if you don't celebrate Christmas.) Kick back, relax a little, and protect your health with superfoods! Then get ready to rock 'n roll with a new healthy YOU in 2010! We'll be bringing you lots of amazing news and strategies for making 2010 the healthiest year of your life. 