Monday, October 31, 2011

Ignore Candy Calories this Halloween


This is a repost BUT when I last posted it I think only 3 people (myself included) read this blog. It sums up how I feel about Halloween and leaves me a little more time to get ready for the Halloween with my ghostbuster and stay puff marshmallow man. Is it in poor taste that I have an Amy Winehouse wig to wear?

Yesterday, I found myself clicking on a list for a Halloween candy calorie counter. I’ve also read numerous Halloween-focused blog posts and advised concerned clients providing them with a strategy for tonight. It no longer surprises me that a day meant to be child-centric takes up a lot of mind time for weight conscious adults because of the candy situation. Other holidays have their accompanying sweets there’s chocolate on Valentine’s Day and pie on Thanksgiving. Yet on Halloween candy, loaded with childhood memories and perhaps mentally off limits, trumps the others in terms of temptation and trouble. To soothe a potentially scary situation a few of my trick or treat tips:

1. Ignore candy calories.
We can all do the math and in fact, for a few publications, I have done more than my share of candy math. There are charts listing the higher calorie candies which includes many of the chocolately ones (Reese’s, Almond Joy, Mounds, Take 5) and the lower calorie (candy corn, 3 Musketeers, Peppermint Patty) but as I mention above I feel you should ignore them. Here’s the deal, it doesn’t matter to me that I can have 35 (35.2 to be exact) candy corn for 3 mini Mounds. I don’t like candy corn and would never forego a chance for an adorable and delicious Mounds. I don’t think we should pick our treat based on a chart. If you’re like me, at one time or another you’ve tasted them all (actually I have never had a Take 5) and know your favorites. Go with them and you may not have to eat 35. Another deterrent is to look at the ingredient list. The mouth-watering Mounds has rather inhibiting ingredients.

2. Children will not care about candy after 48 hours.
It happens every year. It’s mid November and I’m in my office. Without fail a few sessions will start like this “I was doing laundry and I spotted the kids’ candy, I had hid it from the kids.” Or, “it was late at night; I went into the kitchen and decided to have 1 piece of the Halloween candy.” Let’s just say the latter example doesn’t end with 1. I suggest letting your kids enjoy, within reason, their stash on Halloween. After that, present them with a small container and let them put 5 of their favorite candies in there to save. Do what you will with the rest but it needs to leave the house. You can donate it and send it overseas to soldiers (although lately according to reports not sure they need the extra calories), you can, as a client of mine does, put it out for the “candy witch” to take. Candy Witch takes the candy, brings it to children without candy and like the tooth fairy leaves some coins in return. I have no issues tossing candy. If that sounds wasteful I would argue that eating nutritionally void treats isn’t helping anyone.

3. Better Options Exist
I have to admit, I’m not anti sugar. Kids and adults have sugar, even the ones who say or whose parents say they “eat no sugar.” Everything from yogurt to oatmeal can have sugar in it. An article in the New York Times today states “candy provides only 6 percent of the added sugar in the American diet, while sweet drinks and juice supply 46 percent.” Having noted that sugar is prevalent there are better and worse ways to sweeten things. I am wearier of the dyes and high fructose corn syrup than I am of sugar. My kids selected Annie’s Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks and Surf Sweets Sour Worms  to give out. Are these healthy? Appetizing? Absolutely not. They are free of high fructose corn syrup and use natural colorings. I also don’t happen to have any sort of a gummy habit so they’re also “safe” in that respect.
What’s your favorite Halloween candy? Most memorable Halloween costume?  Any trick or treat tips to add? And where are you on "sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't" (Almond Joy or Mounds)?
For the record, my favorite costume was ironically an M & M (I was green and my friend was brown). Our mothers made them. My least favorite was also homemade, it was the American flag. My mother made it out of tissue paper which of course tore and ruined my Halloween. My husband's homemade costume choice in college was "a pair of tighty whities" he made it out of a sheet with a sharpie. Creative, right?

28 comments:

  1. Nice post, Lauren. Incidentally, this RD is going dressed as a Dylan's Candy Bar employee with name tag and all.
    Agree 100 % with #1 and #2 (funny how my younger son won't even touch candy--he didn't inherit the sweet tooth the rest of our family has).
    The key is to choose the candy you like most--don't just eat it because it's there, be selective! And eat it without guilt or fear and really savor it and enjoy it. And get back on track tomorrow.
    Enjoy Halloween! :)

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  2. Thanks Elisa. So you're going as something sweet and I am going as a wino how perfect. I'm actually with your son, the cheese plate calls me more than the candy. You didn't tell us your favorite candy...

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  3. OH I love this post Lauren! At work I was thinking about doing a "healthier halloween" demo, but then I decided I didn't want to take the fun out of everything so I did something somewhat healthy, but still very sweet and delicious (no apples and nuts or anything). I love Halloween candy, and I am definitely not one of the kids who forgot about my candy two weeks later (oh no, I ate about 4 pieces a day for months...seriously).
    Our favorite candy (Nick and I) is the Reece's PB cup, and I'm sure we will be eating some tonight!! We are still kids at heart, afterall :)

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  4. Ha, Gina maybe an RD Healthy Halloween revolt. It's one day (or I guess it isn't in your case...months?). Reeces, hard to argue with that one. I forgot to mention I also really like black licorice and have some for my decorations for our kids table. That may be problematic.

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  5. When I was a kid I would eat a bunch of candy on Halloween and then limit myself to one piece a day after that (not sure if I have that much self-control now!!). I agree that kids forget about candy, at least mine does. I like the suggestion of saving five of her favorites and then tossing the rest. Happy Halloween!

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  6. Great tips! I see nothing wrong with ridding the house of candy if need be. Better to waste a ton of sugar than potentially sabotoging waistline!

    My favorite costume: last year my boyfriend and I were "Noodlers" aka "Louisianna Hand Fishermen" complete with giant stuffed catfish! I love being anti-sexy on Halloween. I have more fun when I can move about without potential nip-slips. This year I was 1/2 of a Palmer Girls entourage. It was only OK. I had fun doing the make-up, but if I set down my guitar I simply looked like a tramp.

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  7. Jenna, try the candy witch. And Cameo- love anti-sexy. I have never loved the, as I read on Sofia's blog "Hallo-slut" look. I did Red Riding hood one year but now I'm all about comfortable clothes and a wig, love a wig.

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  8. My favorite costume was in 4th grade, when we were learning about the American Revolution. I went as Paul Revere and my best friend went as my horse! Oh, and I will *always* choose a nut candy over a non-nut, so it's most definitely Almond Joy for me!

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  9. I'm a sucker for anything chocolate...not a fan of the sweeties or laffy taffy, etc. I'm not giving out candy this year and since my 3 year old doesn't have stamina to stay out for ours, we don't wind up with a lot of candy!

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  10. I'm not all that into candy or sweets. I'd much rather have cheese or chips. But if I had to pick a favorite candy it would have to be... hersheys kisses. I also love the chocolate covered altoids although I haven't seen them for awhile -- maybe they got discontinued??
    You're so right about kids forgetting about the candy.... and about throwing candy away! I argue that it either ends up in the toilet or the trash. Better in the trash I say!!

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  11. Lisa- those choc altoids were good (chocolate ginger were my favorite). Glad we're on agreement about tossing candy. Nancy, though I recall loving sour apple taffy as a child (can you get any grosser) it does nothing for me now. Enjoy your chocolate and your 3 year old.

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  12. My parents always used the approach of letting us gorge ourselves for a few days. Then, there was nothing left but plain chips and toffees, so we didn't want them anymore.

    But I think that kids now end up with A LOT more candy than we used to get as kids. I've heard stories of kids filling a whole pillowcase and starting over with a fresh one. That's a crazy amount of candy!

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  13. Everything has gotten bigger but I think kids enjoy the collecting, swaping, concept more than eating a pillowcase-full. I hope so anyway.

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  14. I think you hit everything right on Lauren! My kids usually forget about the candy at the end of the week as opposed to 48 hours later, then I forget it's in the pantry until Christmas time rolls around and we get more candy. That's when I toss the Halloween candy! My favorites are snickers and butterfingers, and I will be wearing a dancing witch hat tonight that my mom got my son. Secretly he likes it, but its not cool enough to wear it outside of the house, so he will be a skull ninja instead. Happy Halloween!

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  15. Because 11/1 is the major deadline in my world, I haven't celebrated Halloween in 16 years. Oct. 31st, for me, is the last 24 hours before the deadline not a fun holiday w/ candy and wigs. And I really want to wear a wig. Since we just moved to the Dallas version of Chelsea, there are no kids around us and no one will be knocking on our door. No candy in the house to tempt us! So while everyone is having fun tonight, think of me as I write my last recommendation.

    For the record, my favorite candies are Twix and Reece's PB cups. I just had the 1 PB cup I'll allow myself today. I just saw that Justin's is selling their own PB cups in dark chocolate...save me!

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  16. We went out for Beggars' Night last night and had a really fun time. I sent the boys home with their candy, so I'm like Auntie Nightmare! I will say they got far too much, but there are 2 adults, 6 kids, 3 babies and 4 babysitting kids in their house, so it will be divided amongst all of them (minus the infants).

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  17. Beggars Night, is that an Iowa thing?

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  18. I'm with you on this post. Im not ANTI -candy...even the ones with the horrible ingredients and amt of sugar. I love candy corn mixed with peanuts. It's addicting, so luckily I only have it when I'm at my mother in-laws (she introduced me to this mix). Other than that...I'm only a sucker for M&Ms and peanut butter snickers. After a mini treat I can usually resist any others. phew. I DO like your advice though about giving some of the Halloween candy away to a better cause!

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  19. I know that in Dayton, Ohio in the 60s and 70s we had Beggars' Night because I never knew that there were communities that ONLY had trick or treat on Halloween. So it can't be Iowa only. The jokes are Iowa only. Some anthropologist types have said they can't find a record of another town in the U.S. doing the jokes. I blogged about that this morning in case anyone is interested.

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  20. It is so difficult to stay away from the candy right now!! I have a magnet to candy corn, I swear.

    http://www.glamkittenslitterbox.com/
    Twitter: @GlamKitten88

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  21. Great post! I love your candy selection to give out.
    I was little mermaid one year for halloween when I was younger. I just loved that costume!! I was soo into The Little Mermaid at the time and thought I was too cool. haha.

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  22. Erin- candy corn and peanuts uh oh salty sweet my fave. Kristin, I was too old for Little Mermaid but I think so many little girls adored that costume. It's amazing how special, as a child, a costume can make you feel.

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  23. I want to see pics of the Amy Winehouse getup!
    This year was my little guy's first Halloween so we celebrated it from a different perspective!

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  24. We'll see Sam, it's not a look I think I can pull off.

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  25. i like the idea of not worrying about it so much too. when we were kids we ate the halloween candy and was done with it in 48 hours like you said. this is not contributing to the obesity in our lives today. what is is Hydrogenated oils, fake sugars, preservatives!

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  26. It's just so typical, in this country, to focus on a once a year holiday versus day in and day out, right?

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  27. We ended up passing out just about every piece of candy we purchased! Makes me happy that I don't have to worry about it sitting here. Though I will admit I generally will have a couple pieces for a few days and then I'm over it!

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  28. We actually ran out of passing out candy because our trick or treaters were a little greedy.

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