There’s typically no shortage of Halloween parties and socials to attend at this time of the year, so Mummies and Franken-daddies can find valuable tips here on what to take and how to get through those frightening cooked food temptations.
And, most important: when trick or treaters ring your doorbell, what will you offer?
This year try and choose for yourself and your kids nutritious foods, fun non-food items, and items that encourage activity.
Be calorie conscious
Weight management is always a challenge but more so during the holidays.
The secret to success is calorie intake, which means choosing appropriate portions and remembering that extra bites add up. It takes only an additional 100 calories a day above what you need to lead to extra 10lb weight gain in a year.
Procrastinate
Purchase Halloween candy the day of trick or treat to avoid temptation. Buy less than what you think you will need to avoid leftovers and purchase candies that you do not like, if you still have leftovers place them out of sight. If you really have a hard time with temptation choose to pass out non-candy treats such as bouncy balls, spider rings, pencils, erasers, bubbles or stickers.
Eat before you trick or treat
Serve a healthy family dinner before the fun begins, this way the kids will not be tempted to eat candy along the way. After trick or treating, offer a cup of warm, low fat milk with just one treat to ensure that blood sugar is stable before bedtime.
Stay active
Take a long walk around your neighborhood while trick or treating and enjoy all the decorations and customs that kids have on.
After trick or treating sort the candy, inspect them and then set boundaries on an amount to be eaten over a period of many days. You can easily reach 100 calories with just one or two snack size treats.
There are actually some candies that can satisfy your sweet tooth with fewer calories!
Choose items to promote activity
Encourage kids to be more physically active by giving small, inexpensive toys to get them up and moving such as:
- bouncy ball
- jump rope
- sidewalk chalk
- hacky sack
- a foam airplane flier
such as:
- ceral bars
- snack packs of dried fruit
- low-fat crackers with cheese
- beef or turkey jerky
- single serve boxes of healthy ready-to-eat cereal
- raisins and chocolate covered raisins
- single serve packets of low-fat microwave popcorn
- prepare snacks and appetizers like
- carrot fingers (see picture and directions below)
- edible eyeballs (see picture and directions below)
- boo-nanas (see picture and directions below)
- apples with bite (see picture and directions below)
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| CARROT FINGERS - To prepare them, just fill a serving bowl with your favorite vegetable dip. Wash and peel 4 long carrots for fingers and 1 medium carrot for a thumb. Cut a flat, shallow notch in the tip of each carrot. Then use a dab of dip or softened cream cheese to glue a sliced-almond fingernail atop each notch. Stick the fingers in the dip, as shown, and serve with plenty of peeled baby carrots for dipping. |
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| EDIBLE EYEBALLS - Simply slice carrots into 1-inch-thick chunks, top each with a blob of cream cheese and one half of a pitted black olive, and serve. |
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| BOO-NANAS - Use chocolate buttons for the halved bananas, then add strips of celery to the peeled satsumas. |
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| APPLES WITH BITE - quarter an apple, then remove a section from the quarter to create a mini mouth shape. Use slivers of almonds as teeth. |
Help kids enjoy Halloween without overindulging.
If you and your family eat sensibly all year, then kids know how to make wise decisions when they are tempted to overindulge with unhealthy foods.
Enjoy the holiday with your kids, but carefully plan what you will do at your house to assure that healthy eating habits are practiced. This can be challenging, since the goal of most children is to get as much Halloween candy as possible for their own private stash.
Cutting down on high fat and sugar laden Halloween treats alone is not the answer to solving the obesity epidemic, but if individuals provide active and nutritious treats in place of candy, together we can teach children important lessons in healthy eating, conscious choices and portion control.
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