Halloween Without the Sugar Crash - Ask a Nutritionist

Transcript: 

Alyssa: Welcome to another episode of Dishing Up Nutrition’s “Ask a Nutritionist”. If you are enjoying the show, let us know by leaving a rating and reviewing it on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback is appreciated and helps others find the podcast. Now onto today's show of answering a question from a fellow Dishing Up Nutrition listener.

Hello, I am Alyssa, a Registered Dietitian here at Nutritional Weight & Wellness. Today's listener question is fitting for October. This listener asked, how can my family and I enjoy Halloween while avoiding the sugar crash? Personally, as a parent to a couple great kids who love to dress up and trick or treat for lots of candy, I can relate to this listener's concern and desire to have a game plan going into Halloween.

Halloween is a time full of spooky fun, parties, costumes, trick or treating around the neighborhood with your kids or grandkids passing out treats, and a time where the candy tends to be the focus of the night.

Good news, you and your family can celebrate Halloween, enjoy some sweets and your wellbeing does not need to be sacrificed. It is true. The post Halloween candy haul has the potential to present some challenges as you and your family decide how to manage it. So to support wellbeing and feeling your best this Halloween season, let's discuss some strategies you and your trick or treaters in your life can implement to avoid a sugar crash.

Strategy #1 to avoid a sugar crash: prioritize a regular eating routine

Strategy number one, prioritize a regular eating routine. Eat and enjoy a balanced meal or snack every three to four hours during the day every day, including Halloween. A balanced meal includes a source of protein, carbohydrates with some fiber and healthy fats. The human body requires all three to maintain energy, support muscles, and the brain's ability to focus.

Trying to save up or skip meals to compensate for future evening candy enjoyment will increase the probability of consuming more candy than intended, and actually having a sugar crash on Halloween night before heading out to take the kids trick or treating. Or maybe going to a party or starting the activity of passing out candy to trick or treaters.

Sit down for a balanced meal. If you have kids, sit down and eat with them for family dinner. Don't forget, hydrate and drink water. An example meal could be making a recipe for mini muffin tin meatloaf, paired with mashed potatoes and carrots. For Halloween twist, you can peel large carrots and carve them into finger shapes, cut lines for knuckles, and then flatten out the tips.

Use mini peppers to cut nails and attach them using some cream cheese or hummus, or maybe some guacamole. If your crew's up for it, decorate the tops of the mini meatloaf muffins to make them look like eyeballs or mummies. You can use fresh mozzarella and green or black olives for eyes. Eating and offering that balanced meal and water before trick or treating fuels the body, reduces hunger and reduces the lure to eat an abundance of candy while going out trick or treating.

Overall, it helps to stabilize energy, mood, and avoid those sugar crashes. So this Halloween, keep up with you and your family's eating routine and stay hydrated. It will set you up on a path to enjoy Halloween and some candy in a more mindful way.

Strategy #2: make Halloween about more than just candy

Strategy number two, make Halloween about more than just candy. There are many potential fun activities around Halloween besides the candy. Focus away from candy fixation and zero in more on the social aspect of the holiday. During the month of October, get outside to visit a pumpkin patch.

Navigate a corn maze. Repurpose some old clothing to make scarecrows and decorate your front entry or yard. Host a pumpkin decorating party and contest. Maybe have the kids help plan and create a spooky menu for Halloween day. My kids especially enjoy making and eating candy corn parfaits, and no, it's not just a big pile of candy corn. Take a clear glass cup or a parfait dish and then layer on pineapple, mandarin oranges and top with either shredded coconut, vanilla yogurt, cottage cheese, or maybe a whipped topping.

The finished fruit side looks like candy corn. You can think outside the box. Seek fun ways to celebrate. Make this Halloween about connecting with family, friends, and neighbors.

Strategy # 3: purchase candy for trick-or-treaters close to or on Halloween (& offer non-treat options)

Strategy number three: purchase candy for trick or treaters close to or on Halloween. If you struggle with having large amounts of candy in the house, consider waiting close to or on Halloween day to buy candy for treaters. This is a strategy of managing your environment so you don't walk past a bowl of Halloween candy that you purchased for trick or treaters multiple times a day and be lured to have just a piece, which then leads maybe to more pieces of unplanned candy eating occasions occurring prior to Halloween night.

So many unplanned candy pieces may be eaten that you end up needing to go back to the store to buy more candy for trick or treaters. Now, separate from the candy, I do encourage the purchasing of non-food treats in advance of Halloween day. Non-food treats can be offered instead of or in addition to the candy treat choice.

Kids enjoy having options and non-food treats support inclusive trick-or-treating. Popular non-food treat choices include temporary tattoos, glow sticks, water bottle stickers, pencil charms, bracelets. For kids with food allergies, and a variety of other health concerns the candy option may not always be safe.

The kids still want to participate in the fun, dress up and go trick or treating. If you decide to offer non-food treats this Halloween, consider letting families affected by food allergies know. You can sign up to participate in what's known as the Teal Pumpkin Project. It's a nationwide campaign by food allergy research and education whose goal is to promote food allergy awareness and inclusive trick or treating by offering non-food treats to trick or treaters.

Displaying a teal pumpkin signifies houses offering non-food treats. Food allergy research and education offers teal pumpkin principles and a map on their website, food allergy.org where people can let others know that they're participating.

Strategy #4: move your body

Strategy number four, move your body. Put that energy you get from candy to good use. Integrate movement into Halloween. And yes, trick or treating counts as movement. A short walk after eating leads to more gradual rise and fall in blood sugar levels. If you're not on the trick or treat route this year, try out some other festive movement ideas such as having your friends over for a spooky season dance party.

Wear your favorite Halloween outfit to a workout class or yoga session in your community. Enjoy a walk earlier in the day on Halloween after lunch or before the trick or treater crews get out and check out all the fun Halloween decorations.

Strategy #5: serve a snack along with the candy after trick-or-treating

Strategy number five: serve a snack along with the candy after trick or treating. After running around trick or treating, kids will be hungry. Instead of only having the candy available to eat, plan. Have ready to go in the fridge a post trick or treat snack platter. Kids can nibble both from their candy haul and the snack platter that provides a little bit of protein, fats, and carbohydrates with fiber while they sort and check out all their candy.

Yes, kids will eat candy. It is Halloween. That's okay. It's part of the fun. A snack platter adds nutrition and balance to help prevent those sugar crashes. Don't make a big deal about the snack platter. Just set it out on the table next to your kids while they're sorting their candy, and don't say anything.

They can have the choice and more than likely, will take a few bites of some of those snacks. The snack platter may include apple slices, maybe some cheese squares, bites of nitrate free meat sticks, energy bites made with a nut butter and some oats and honey, maybe some chocolate chips in there, and maybe cucumber slices for something crunchy and refreshing.

Main point: offer more real food options after trick or treating versus only having the candy haul out. The kids will be hungry. So take advantage and offer something in addition to all the candy. Talking about the candy haul, decide in advance so before going out trick or treating how the candy haul will be managed and have the kids be in the know.

Consider having your trick or treaters use a smaller bag or pumpkin container to collect candy instead of a large pillowcase. Using a smaller collection container can keep the candy haul to a more manageable size. Encourage your kids to eat and enjoy candy slowly, saving some for later rather than consuming all at once in the excitement of the evening.

And after Halloween, go back to your typical routine. Business as usual. Some families like to participate in a tradition known as the “switch witch”. It's like the Tooth Fairy but for Halloween. After Trick or Treating kids select their favorite candies to keep and enjoy, and the remaining ones are left out overnight for the magical switch witch.

The next morning candy is gone, replaced by a new toy or maybe a fun craft. This can help families manage candy overload and provide a fun alternative to the candy. The switch witch is a tradition that can also be helpful for those families that have children living with food allergies or other dietary restrictions where they don't always get to enjoy all that candy that they collected in the first place.

Personally, my family has not actually tried the switch witch tradition. One of our kids does live with food allergies. We have participated in the teal pumpkin project for several years and do seek out some neighbors who we know pass out non-candy treat options. For the candy hauls, we work with our kid who has food allergies to check their candy for allergens after they collect everything before they get into it.

We usually have some leftover non-food candy treat options from what we passed out to trick or treaters, an allergy free or allergen safe candy for them leftover that we can replace as we remove some of those concerning candies. The candy for each of my kids is placed in their own labeled gallon bag and stored in the kitchen.

In the days and weeks after Halloween, my kids pick out some candy to eat each day as part of either their afterschool snack or with dinner or with their lunch. Serving the candy with a meal or with a snack that also contains real foods with protein, fat, and fiber helps slow down digestion and prevents a blood sugar roller coaster.

Recap

Halloween's a fun time of year. Enjoy the holiday and focus on connecting with friends, family, neighbors, your kids in celebration. This Halloween to prevent the blood sugar crash, remember, eat your meals and snacks. Have a solid dinner before heading out for the night. Move your body, walk around the neighborhood and enjoy a dance party in the living room with your kids.

Eat an evening snack when you get back from trick or treating along with that candy. When it comes to passing out treats, consider participating in the Teal Pumpkin Project and offering some non-food treat bucket choice options. Thank you to the listener who asked today's question, and thank you for listening today to Dishing Up Nutrition, “Ask a Nutritionist”. If you've found this episode to be helpful, be sure to leave us a rating or review in your podcast app.

And if you would like us to answer a question of yours, we have two options for you to reach us. First, you can join our private Dishing Up Nutrition Facebook community by searching Dishing Up Nutrition on Facebook.

Join Our Dishing Up Nutrition Facebook Group

Or you can call 952-641-5233 to leave your question in our Dishing Up Nutrition voicemail box. If you have a question, let us know. We look forward to hearing from you.