Taming the Halloween Candy Monster

October 21, 2011, By Avery Hurt 1 comment

Avery Hurt

When my now-adult twin sons were growing-up, Halloween was a huge deal in our family. We spent days making costumes and hours trudging around the neighborhood so the boys could extort candy from the neighbors. Needless to say, they brought in great hauls of loot.

One would dive into his candy that very night—eating an obscene amount—and pretty much have it wiped out within a few days. The other would eat a few pieces that night, and we wouldn’t see his bag again until mid-summer, when we sat down to watch the All-Star baseball game. That’s when he would treat us all to the (stale) Halloween candy he'd saved. Sometimes, he would pull out his bag during the Perseid meteor shower in mid-August, and we would choose our favorite candy while watching the show. By the World Series, it was almost time for Halloween again. I presumed that we had finally finished off his candy, but I wasn't surprised if I found a bag of fossilized Halloween goodies in the back of a closet somewhere.

Each of my boys had a totally different approach to Halloween candy, but both have grown up to be healthy, trim young men—and neither has ever had a cavity. A small sample-size, I know, but something to keep in mind if you are struggling over how to cope with the candy monster this Halloween.

Let’s face it. It’s Halloween. There is going to be candy. And if you are looking to be crowned “Nastiest Halloween Monster Of The Year,” you might try telling your kids they can’t trick-or-treat or eat any candy. If you are unwilling to play the role, you need to have a plan for finding yourself wedged firmly between excited kids, candy and the echoing chants of experts intoning: "Obesity! Cavities! Obesity! Cavities!”

First thing's first: relax. If your family already has a responsible attitude about food, one big candy feast per year is unlikely to change that. In many ways, Halloween is for kids what Thanksgiving, the end of Ramadan and the Passover Seder are to adults. Most of us manage to eat like maniacs on these special days of the year and have our waistlines, blood sugar levels and teeth survive. Letting kids eat a few extra pieces of candy for a week or so seems relatively harmless as well.

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