Americans Consume More Calories On Christmas Than Any Other Nation

This holiday season, the U.S. of A. is going to have itself a bloated little Christmas. In news that comes as a shock to no one, it turns out that Americans eat more than any other country in the world on Christmas. According to data compiled by British pharmacy company, Treated.com, Americans consume approximately 3,291 calories on December 25.

It should be noted that this company calculated the average calories in each country's traditional Christmas meal, so the results don't necessarily mean that you, yourself, are a Christmastime over-indulger. If your family, for instance, likes to go lean and lay off the mashed potatoes, you might be in the clear.

Coming in a very close second to the U.S., with a hearty dose of treacle pudding, is the U.K. with an average of 3,289 calories, just two shy of the insatiable Americans' count. France isn't too far behind with 3,217 calories, Portugal had 3,209, and Germany rounded out the stoutest five with 3,168 calories per holiday meal. Italy, surprisingly was not one of the worst culprits.

You may be curious as to how the leanest Christmas-celebrating nations fared. The bottom five countries are Finland (2,168), Malta (2,030), Czech Republic (1,940), Lithuania (1,885), and Japan (1,400). Lithuania celebrates five days of Christmas but still has a low calorie count because the holiday is seen as a solemn religious affair with little room for pigging out. In Japan, the traditional Christmas day meal is usually a fast food fix from KFC — but, then, only between 1 and 2.3 percent of the population is Christian, so Christmas isn't necessarily a big deal.

If you're looking to cut down on your caloric consumption this festive season, start with baking these (relatively) healthier sweets as swaps for Christmas cookies.