As a Child I loved Halloween! Couldn’t get enough of the candy.
As a teen and young adult, I loved passing out candy to all the Halloween creatures.
Truth be told – it was more like, one for you – three for me. I don’t even want to think about how much candy I actually ate on Halloween evenings.
Now as a mom I think quite differently about Halloween. All these treats aren’t really “treats”. They’re a big disaster settling in to destroy our health in the future.
Artificial colors, additives and preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, words you can’t pronounce, trans fats, and natural flavors (which can really be anything) are all found in most of the candy the children will collect on Halloween night. The impact all of this has on the body is what creates today’s society with diabetes, heart disease and other related illnesses, even in children.
Functional doctors such as Dr. Mark Hyman call sugar, “The white devil”. Dr. Tom O’Bryan explains many problems sugar can cause the body, such as creating imbalances in the gastrointestinal tract as well as mineral absorption, causing premature aging or damage to your pancreas, causing headaches or high blood pressure in obese people, feeding cancer cells, and suppressing the immune system – just to name a few! (O’Bryan,Tom, The Autoimmune Fix,2016)
Ruining Halloween is not the intent
of sharing this important information
Being mindful of what you pass out, what your children collect and what they decide to eat, is what needs to be considered.
Prior to our family having food allergies, I had already been taking out certain candies from my children’s Halloween candy bags. They were troopers and never complained as they still had much to enjoy.
Now, it’s a different story.
How will you handle this
with your own gluten-free
Halloween trick-o-treaters?
Have a plan
In my blog post, How to Survive your Gluten-Free Halloween, I discussed different ways to celebrate Halloween with month-long fun festive activities – moving the focus away from the candy. (See how that can work for you!)
Try swapping out
the collected Halloween candy for
healthier gluten-free Halloween treats
I’ve found some gems at our local Whole Foods store: Heavenly Organics Mint Chocolate Patties, Surf Sweets and Endangered Chocolate. Better versions but still don’t go crazy.
These are good options for those with food allergies, all were gluten-free and some were dairy and corn-free.
These allowed my children to have a good option to enjoy without being left out.
In the past, my little guy would go to a house and say “Trick-o-treat! Do you have anything that is gluten-free? Is that corn-free?”
It didn’t matter that we told him he didn’t need to say that – he still did.
But, what we found was that in the end, it never mattered. He didn’t really care about the candy that he collected. He just had a fabulous time checking out all the other costumes.
And, with our system, he knew he had a “treat” waiting for him at home.
Figure out what is best for you. Go through your children’s candy together. Have them pick out their favorites. Possibly donate the rest. Pick up some healthier treats for them to enjoy instead.
All in all, enjoy the night
Refocus on the costumes and the fun.
Have a great gluten-free Halloween!
Tell me below how you will celebrate
Halloween at your house.
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