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The holiday sweets may have a stronger appeal to people this year compared to other years. What's the reason behind this? Money.
There is just so much delicious and horribly unhealthy food around the holidays.
Utah Department of Health Physical Activity, Nutrition and Obesity Program Nutrition Coordinator Patrice Isabella said, "There is candy everywhere, and that is something that, as a dietitian, can drive me crazy during the holidays."
Isabella agrees with most dietitians in saying people tend to overindulge over the holidays. "People do a lot of mindless eating in America where you're eating but you're really not paying attention to the fact that you're eating," she said.
But, the Associated Press says people may eat a little extra this year because of the stress of economic uncertainty. Isabella says that's a definite possibility.
"When people are under a lot of stress they are less likely to be paying as much attention to what they're eating because they have other concerns," she said.
When it comes to financial stress, bankruptcy attorney Sherri Palmer says we are feeling it sooner than we have in the past. "There is really a dramatic difference. Years ago, when they used to come to me, people would be really behind in their debt. They would be at least three months delinquent on house payments. They wouldn't have paid their credit cards for a long time."
Palmer says she's now seeing people come into her firm even though they're still current on their payments.
"All the interest rates on all the credit cards now have gone up. All these people that were current, even though they were current, their interest rates got jacked."
After looking at their new payments, she says some of these people didn't even need to file for bankruptcy, although others did. She says two clients have had fatal heart attacks from the stress of bankruptcy, and another threatened to kill himself.
"I once had a person that had their gun to their head and called me, on the phone, with a gun to their head," she said.
That man only had $1,000 in debt. Palmer says bankruptcy can negotiate payment plans with creditors to make the process less stressful, and even if you file Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the worst is you'd have to pay back your creditors a percentage of your debt.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
