Many of the eating habits that make it difficult for adults to manage their weight begin in childhood. While the once-a-year sugar binge that is Halloween doesn’t happen often enough to be a habit, it’s still another green light for children to eat unhealthily.
So what are health-conscious parents to do? You could lock up the kids for the night, or take away 99% of the stuff they get because it’s unhealthy. But don’t expect any ‘Parent-of-the-Year’ awards for either of those tactics.
Why not set an Example?
The Halloween treats you give out this year don’t need to be unhealthy. And they don’t even need to be edible.
By breaking the cycle of giving sweets from the biggest bag of discount candy you can find, you’ll set a great example for your kids and all the trick-or-treaters that visit your home too.
- Replace Candy with… Let’s face it, sweet treats are expected and if you don’t want to disappoint, substitute high-sugar candy with healthy but sweet alternatives like boxes of raisins. Sugar-free chewing gum is another great candy substitute and dental professionals say it actually helps prevent tooth decay.
- Replace Chocolate Bars with… Try granola or fruit bars. Yes, it might be a little more expensive than the discount bag of candy, but we’re talking about kids’ health here. If you want to really set an example, and not worry about the high sugar content in some bars, there are lots of easy-to-do granola bar recipes on the web.And if you still want to maintain the tradition of chocolate at Halloween, try low-sugar dark chocolate.
- Replace Chips with … Small bags of your own ‘Bits n’ Bites’ mix that you put together with regular shreddies, cheerios and low-salt pretzels.
- Replace Everything Edible with … The best way to make sure you don’t give trick-or-treaters any unhealthy snacks is to not give them any snacks at all. Your local dollar store is full of reasonably-priced miniature toys and arts & crafts. When you give these treats, kids will not only avoid stuffing their faces with unhealthy snacks, but they might get a little extra activity and interaction too.
No matter how you do it, setting a good example with healthy Halloween treats not only helps your children and the trick-or-treaters, it also helps to reinforce many of the good habits you developed for yourself when you decided to eat right, get the proper nutrition and live more healthily. So it’s all good.