Keeping your kids safe from the sugar goblins is no easy task! The following is a sure fire protection plan that will help ensure they come out of Halloween happy and unscathed!
Know and realize the dangers of sugar to our health without eliminating the fun of trick or treating.
Discuss these with your children openly and in a light way. Don’t come across as a Halloween “scrooge” but tell the story of sugar and the detriments it has on their body. Refer to Nancy Appleton’s book- Lick the Sugar Habit, for more information and data to support your ideas.
Start by planning ahead. Encourage a high protein breakfast on Halloween morning. Wait! Encourage that every morning!
Ideas:
- Eggs
- Egg muffins
- Avocado on Ezekial toast
- High protein, low carb pancakes
- (Easy on the real maple syrup)
- Protein and green smoothie (See Patient Advocate Jennifer Browner for recipe ideas)
- Pack at least 2 veggies in their lunch that day. Wait! Everyday! ;)
Limit treats at school parties or volunteer to bring in the veggie tray that day. Discuss chemicals in food such as food dyes and colors and how these have shown in research to have negative affects on brains. Also, discuss the favorite experiment with plants that involves feeding one plant plain water and the other plant food dyed water. The plant fed the food coloring turns that color! Would our bodies really be any different on the inside??
Plan a protein/ veggie dinner (something in the crock pot works nicely as your day will be busy enough) Dark greens are rich in Vitamin C, while carrots are rich in Vitamin A (A and C are best for warding off the FLU virus and are more effective than a Flu shot!)
Eat dinner before trick or treating begins. Enjoy trick or treating. Discuss waiting to eat the treats until after Mom and Dad have checked out all of the candy (inspect for wrapper tampering etc).
Once home, sort the candy into piles. Have kids place their favorites into one pile. Discuss the difference between candy with no food coloring and those with dyes. Discuss how even though it’s fun to receive candy, Halloween is more about the excitement of seek and find and about the generosity of our neighbors than it is about the over indulgence of sugar. Do a simple muscle test to see which candy “stresses the body” and which seems “ok in moderation”. Have kids place two to three pieces that they would like to eat that night aside.
Place the rest of the candy into a cupboard. Discuss having a piece or two as a treat over the next couple of days. After a few days, offer an incentive to buy back the candy and take your child shopping for a small toy. I discard the candy at this point since it has provided all of the excitement and entertainment value. I ethically don’t pass it on because I don’t want to essentially poison others with it.
On that note, I choose to pass out “other” items on Halloween. I may not be the crowd favorite, and known for my extra large candy bars, but I can rest easy knowing that I provided something different and “safe” to my trick or treaters.