Trick-or-TREAT

Halloween is here! Every child looks forward to this day each year—the costumes, the parties, and, most importantly, the candy! Halloween has become a week-long event.  I remember when I was growing up, I would go trick-or-treating not only in my neighborhood, but each of the surrounding neighborhoods that held their event at a different time.  By the end of the holiday, I would have at least two of those pumpkin pails filled to the brim with sugary treats. It was definitely enough candy to last through the year.

As an adult, there is a new day we look forward to….the day after Halloween! All candy goes on sale at Walgreen's, your kids go back to school so you can steal their treats, and your coworkers that over-prepared for the amount of trick-or-treaters they would actually have bring in their leftover candy.
However glorious this day may seem, it is not so good for your health. This huge amount of candy is scarier than Halloween itself!

Here are some spooky things to think about that will really creep you out this Halloween:

• Let’s first take a minute to think about how long your Halloween candy lasts you throughout the year.  From personal experience, I would say that Halloween candy still tastes delicious until 6 months later, when Easter candy is out, and all I want is a Reese’s shaped like an egg. Now think about how long those bananas on your counter last. Maybe a week. Bananas are highly nutrient and water dense. Our bodies need these nutrients to survive, but so do the microbes that cause rot and decomposition in fruit!  What is in chocolate that makes it stay fresh for so long?! Little-to-no water and A TON of sugar and preservatives—this combination is our microbe friends’ worst nightmare. They hate candy because they can’t survive on it…and guess what? We can’t either.

• Why do we love sweet and savory treats so much? It’s because, biologically, our bodies actually NEED sugar and salt to function. However (and this is a big however), in today’s world, we get more than enough sugar and salt in our diet. The desire for sugar and salt has become an ADDICTION. Don’t believe me? Check out the reactions of these kids when they are told that their parents ate all of there Halloween candy:

• Why do our bodies look physically worse after consuming a lot of simple sugars? The second week of November is usually about the time you start to notice physical and mental changes as a result from all that candy you’ve been consuming.  You start getting acne, gain a little weight, your teeth start to rot, and you are having a hard time concentrating and falling asleep.  All of these changes are a result of increased blood sugar.  

• The sugar in your blood feeds the bacteria in your pores that result in acne.
• The acidity from the sugar does not mix well with the calcium in your teeth, so they start to rot. 
• All of the energy from the sugar causes your cells to go into hyperactive mode, causing you to be fidgety and have a hard time concentrating. 

Spooky stuff! Now that I’ve added to your Halloween terror of treats, here are some tricks on how to make Halloween a bit healthier:

• Limit candy to just Halloween. As of November 1st, toss the rest in the garbage.
• Strike a deal with your kids—for every piece of candy they turn in, they get points toward something awesome, like next year’s costume, a Christmas present, or fun family activity.
• Hand out something else to trick-or-treaters! Be a neighborhood celebrity and stand out.  In my neighborhood, we have the house that hands out tennis balls, the house that hands out bubbles, and the house that hosts a haunted garage. All three are must-stops every year.
• Shorten your trick-or-treat route. Go trick-or-treating for half the time you usually do and then head to a haunted house, a corn maze, or go apple picking instead! 

Happy Halloween!!