I love Halloween! Here are some suggestions from MSNBC Nutritionist Joy Bauer. She has some smart ideas for managing the sugar overdose that comes with mixing kids, candy, and Halloween.
*Choose smaller sized candy, often labeled as “fun size” or “mini” and select candy that take a while to eat like lollipops or sucking candies.
*Buy value packs of sugarless gum.
*Look for the 100-calorie snack packs.
*Stock up on 100% fruit chews.
*Select dark chocolate candy options. The darker the chocolate, the more antioxidants.
*Skip the candy and give out baseball cards, wacky packs, glow stick bracelets and necklaces.
For your own kids
*Make sure they have a full dinner before they go trick or treating because, if they are hungry, they will eat more candy en route.
*Avoid all unnecessary sugar (soda, fruit drinks, sugar cereals and pancake syrup) on Halloween.
*Most importantly, make sure your kids walk and walk and walk as they trick-or-treat.
Decide together how much of the candy they can eat each day and don’t let kids keep their candy stashes in their rooms.
