Here's an article I wrote to help you and your family have a healthy and happy Halloween.
Halloween: Don’t Trick Kids With Candies! Treat Them With
Healthy, Fun “Goodies” Instead
By Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C.
Halloween is downright spooky. And I’m not talking about the
cavorting children dressed up as gruesome goblins, ghouls, monsters or pirates.
Rather, the scariest part of Halloween is that it’s
become our nationally observed, mandatory “Spooky Sugar Overload Day” (and
week).
Sadly, most Americans follow this accepted, but outdated
ritual despite our alarming rates of obesity and skyrocketing numbers of children
getting type 2 diabetes.
This Halloween, it’s time for us to face the frightening facts:
When kids come trick-or-treating, you are tricking them rather than treating
them by giving them sugary candies galore to gobble and gorge.
In short, you could be sending unsuspecting children into
sugar shock.
When children overdose on sweets, they could become
moody, anxious, depressed, unsociable, brain-fogged, obese, quarrelsome,
confrontational, hyperactive, rowdy, raging and tantrum-throwing kids. In
short, they could be transformed into “Sugar Brats.”
By my calculations, the average child scarfs down between
20 to 50 teaspoons of sugar and hundreds of calories on Halloween night alone. And
that doesn’t include the massive sugar overdosing in the days that follow.
What’s more, Halloween sets the stage for sugar
overloading year round. And this sugar habit, research shows, could pave the
way to obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, failing memory, early
aging and many more health problems.
Many parents think that since Halloween only comes once a
year, they needn’t worry about their child’s sugar intake. Quite the contrary.
The average American consumes between 142.6 pounds to 170
pounds of sugar per year—or nearly a cup of sugar per day. But many children take
in much more than that.
These figures are a far cry from the average sugar
consumption nearly two centuries ago when the average person only tasted 2.2
teaspoons of sugar a day.
So, this Halloween, why put your child’s health at risk
by handing over sugar-loaded candies?
Hand
Out Toys as “Treats” Instead
Thankfully, some savvy, nutrition-minded health experts now
recommend that parents give out fun, colorful, non-edible Halloween “treats”
and fun party favors instead of candy.
For instance, you could offer such healthy, Halloween-themed
goodies as bats, spiders, beetles and mice. Or you could hand out slinkees,
kazoos and glow-in-the-dark fingers. (More ideas can be found at www.SugarShockBlog.com.)
Here's an article I wrote to help you and your family have a healthy and happy Halloween.
Halloween: Don’t Trick Kids With Candies! Treat Them With Healthy, Fun “Goodies” Instead
By Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C.
Halloween is downright spooky. And I’m not talking about the cavorting children dressed up as gruesome goblins, ghouls, monsters or pirates.
Rather, the scariest part of Halloween is that it’s become our nationally observed, mandatory “Spooky Sugar Overload Day” (and week).
Sadly, most Americans follow this accepted, but outdated ritual despite our alarming rates of obesity and skyrocketing numbers of children getting type 2 diabetes.
This Halloween, it’s time for us to face the frightening facts: When kids come trick-or-treating, you are tricking them rather than treating them by giving them sugary candies galore to gobble and gorge.
In short, you could be sending unsuspecting children into sugar shock.
When children overdose on sweets, they could become moody, anxious, depressed, unsociable, brain-fogged, obese, quarrelsome, confrontational, hyperactive, rowdy, raging and tantrum-throwing kids. In short, they could be transformed into “Sugar Brats.”
By my calculations, the average child scarfs down between 20 to 50 teaspoons of sugar and hundreds of calories on Halloween night alone. And that doesn’t include the massive sugar overdosing in the days that follow.
What’s more, Halloween sets the stage for sugar overloading year round. And this sugar habit, research shows, could pave the way to obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, failing memory, early aging and many more health problems.
Many parents think that since Halloween only comes once a year, they needn’t worry about their child’s sugar intake. Quite the contrary.
The average American consumes between 142.6 pounds to 170 pounds of sugar per year—or nearly a cup of sugar per day. But many children take in much more than that.
These figures are a far cry from the average sugar consumption nearly two centuries ago when the average person only tasted 2.2 teaspoons of sugar a day.
So, this Halloween, why put your child’s health at risk by handing over sugar-loaded candies?
Hand Out Toys as “Treats” Instead
Thankfully, some savvy, nutrition-minded health experts now recommend that parents give out fun, colorful, non-edible Halloween “treats” and fun party favors instead of candy.
For instance, you could offer such healthy, Halloween-themed goodies as bats, spiders, beetles and mice. Or you could hand out slinkees, kazoos and glow-in-the-dark fingers. (More ideas can be found at www.SugarShockBlog.com.)