Does Halloween have to be about candy?

This is my 10th halloween as a mother. I have to say that as time goes by, I love it more and more… the homemade costumes, having a chance to become someone else, the fascination with the unknown. I could happily live in Jack Skellington’s world! The one thing that I really dislike is — you guessed it- the overabundance of processed sugary treats.

My loathing for candy has reached an all-time high this year. As we learn more and more about the deleterious health effects of sugar and refined carbohydrates, I see it more and more as something to be avoided at all cost, rather than a sweet addition to our lives.

However, not a lot of people share these views, and certainly not many children do. While at the Halloween dance today at school, the DJ asks the children “What’s your favourite part of Halloween?” and the children respond “Candy”. Of course. Candy is ubiquitous in our daily living, and for almost everyone it is a synonym for Halloween. Americans are reported to purchase around 600 million pounds of candy for Halloween , and on average a child in the United States consumes 32 teaspoons of sugar a day — outside of Halloween! This is definitely the scary side of Halloween, but I have decided to not make it my fight anymore.

Instead of preaching to my kids about the awful effects of sugar — they hear this everyday from me, and frankly they are sick of the message ;)- I will present as many healthy and fun Halloween-y foods as I can, in an effort to show them that Halloween doesn’t have to be about candy. Or not too much anyway.

My strategy this year consists on providing our children with as many healthy foods as I can, and on moderating the sugar consumption. As the Halloween events are celebrated at our school today, we sent them to school with a belly full of healthy breakfast options — lots of protein from eggs, nut butters and smoothie- and anticipating the onslaught of treats they would be presented with at the different Halloween celebrations, we sent a hearty, healthy lunch — tofu sticks, steamed broccoli, brown rice and kale chips. Our contributions for the Halloween celebrations are home-made mummy granolas, inspired by this recipe -yes, it does have candy eyes, and I used a tiny drizzle of cookie icing to decorate- but using Oh She Glows’ sugar free Hearty Granola Bars For a Halloween party my daughter has been invited to, I am making a fun vegetable side dish, which I am sure the kids will love. You cannot really go wrong with peas!

Tomorrow, actually Halloween, the emphasis will be on nutritious healthy eating leading up to trick-or- treating time — read, fill up their bellies with homemade foodstuffs before they head out the door. I will be offering nuts, seeds, fruits cut in fun shapes, hummus with vegetables, and a fun Halloween themed pasta dish. All in an effort to introduce the idea that fun does not need to entail sugar.

After collecting the candy, the children are usually more focused on sorting it, admiring the vast amounts they have collected, than eating it. So it never has been that much of a struggle to actually ration the amount of candy they eat. Typically we permit the children to have one piece of candy per day the week following Halloween, and then it all disappears — it is usually thrown in the garbage, at their request, or put away until is ginger bread house decorating time! This year, however, we will look for a dentist office that is doing “candy exchanges” The money from this might not be great, but at least the treats are out of our sight and out of our mind — and most importantly, our of our bellies!

So I can say that after so many years, I have accepted the fact that Halloween candy is here to stay. I hope that these “healthy tweaks” will gain the appreciation of my children, and I am hopeful that in the future, as we become a more conscious society, we place less emphasis on the sugary stuff and more on the fun.

Happy Halloween!