Halloween Candy Choices
Again, today I was going to write about something else BUT I saw this article, The Best Candy, in my newsletter & since it is so close to Halloween, I thought I would share with you now just in case you want to buy anything. I usually do these copy & paste the article thing on the weekends BUT because Halloween is close, I did not want to wait till next weekend.I know Halloween is tough for some of us health & fitness crazies because on the one hand, we want the kids to enjoy but on the other, it is like contributing to the problem we write about every day. Yes, many of us are all for moderation but something about a HUGE bag of candy collected is well, tough for our minds to deal with.... Jeez, when I was a kid & lived back east, we took out pillow cases to collect candy! Those were the times when nobody was worried & every house was decorated & it was fun for all. OK, I digress! I am sounding like an old person now!
Anyway, this candy "meets any number of requirements: Vegan, organic, fair trade, gluten free, non-allergenic, kosher and Feingold". The article also offers up some homemade treat recipes and Glee Gum’s make-your-own chewing gum kits. These educational kits are made to help kids connect to the global community by tracing the origins of the ingredients, specifically the natural chicle, sustainably harvested in Guatemala and Mexico.
Here is the full article:
The candy and kids dilemma kills me. My kids love candy, but candy’s rotten for my kids. High-fructose corn syrup, artificial coloring, bovine gelatin, oh my. So I think, “Sorry girls, no candy, unh unh.”
But something about total restriction goes against my instinct–and surely enough, a New York Times article, 6 Food Mistakes Parents Make, backs me up on that one with statements such as: “A large body of research shows that if a parent restricts a food, children just want it more,” and, “Other studies show that children whose food is highly restricted at home are far more likely to binge when they have access to forbidden foods.”
So there you go. How to treat my kids to the treats they covet, without exposing them to a rainbow array of sickly sweet, and quite frankly, terrifying ingredients?
Well lucky me, by chance I stumbled upon a source for candy that meets any number of requirements: Vegan, organic, fair trade, gluten free, non-allergenic, kosher and Feingold. Imagine! The source comes from a mom-and-daughters candy team who started a Web site called NaturalCandyStore.com. It’s extra terrific because you can browse by category, and each candy is labeled with an easy-to-identify icon telling you which categories it falls under. The candy they have selected meets strict quality standards, and the good ol’ taste standard of yumminess as well.
Of course, the truly best candy is probably the candy you make at home. With that in mind I pulled these out of the Care2 recipe collection. Have fun!
Homemade Taffy
Pumpkin Seed Crackle
Maple Candied Popcorn
Homemade Maple Candy
Another option that I love (love, love) is Glee Gum’s make-your-own chewing gum kits. These educational kits are made to help kids connect to the global community by tracing the origins of the ingredients, specifically the natural chicle, sustainably harvested in Guatemala and Mexico. Chicle remains an important part of the economy in those countries. Additionally, the process of making the gum involves activities kids typically love: Stirring, mixing, pulling, poking, touching and tasting.
While the gum does contain pure cane sugar, its list of ingredients is long on the positives; it’s made with all-natural ingredients including rice syrup and is vegetarian, additive-free, lactose-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free and contains no artificial colors, artificial preservatives, artificial flavors or artificial sweeteners.
On another note, over at Fit to the Finish and MizFit, I saw this:
Joanna and Lance are doing ‘Blog For A Cause‘ with the intention to do an ebook in which they are accepting blog posts from different blogs and compiling them into an eBook. The proceeds will help support Breast Cancer Research. The blog post you choose can be one of your favorites, one of your most popular, or whatever! Contact Lance or Joanna for more information.
I wonder if I will change over time? as my daughter gets older? Right now I dont care at all what she eats on Halloween.
It's a 'special day' and FOR ME if theres a bit more sugar and cr*P around then thats fine.
It all makes me think of what a client would say to me:
it isnt the dessert I ate out at a restaurant which made me obese--it's the large pizza I ate alone afterward.
A bit more candy CONFINED to this holiday period I think is ok.
for now.
until I change my mind
may I reserve that right?
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I like the idea of candy being organic and sustainable, but I have to agree with MizFit in that I don't really worry about it for my own children. They don't eat candy very often, and if it's a special occasion I just let them have it!
I like your point about trying to give out healthier choices so we aren't sending mixed messages. I hadn't really thought of it in that way.
Thanks Jody.
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I'm not much for Halloween, but if people were giving out pizzas door to door, I'd be at every house collecting that cheesy goodness.
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A recipe for homemade taffy? Now I'm not going to get anything else done this week. Thanks a lot!
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Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! It's always been about the costumes and trick or treating, not the eating for me, and still is!
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I don't restrict what my kids eat on Halloween. It's a special occasion and I don't monitor what they eat that night. They rarely eat candy so I just let them have fun. I end up throwing away the vast majority of it a couple days after Halloween anyway.
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Thx for all the great comments! I am like all of you. I let kids be kids here. I send some candy but also some little toys to the grandkids. And Dr. J, yes, the costumes are such a fun part!!! Like I said, as a kid, I loved all the houses being decorated & participating!
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The problem with going the free, organic, fair-trade route is that it's a bit pricey for most parents. If I had kids, I'd probably go for the cheap stuff in limited quantities.
We did the pillow case thing when I was a kid, too. Sometimes we'd even go home and dump off a load before going back out again.
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I love the make your own chewing gum idea! My kids would get a huge kick out of that - I had no idea it even existed!
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