Treating Kids Better on Halloween

Don't leave me alone with these....

It's almost Halloween again, and here's something really scary: Americans spend almost $2 billion each year on Halloween candy. (Consider that--then consider the starving children you see in those late-night TV commercials for Christian charities.) And it's not just children who eat the stuff, as we all know too well. The parents--at least all the ones I've ever known--wait for the kids to go to bed, then attack those treat bags in search of their favorites. (My own son eventually smartened up and hid his stash from us.) The holiday ushers in a corn syrup frenzy lasting many days--weeks even-- depending on the generosity and income of the neighborhood where your kid went scavenging.

Everyone knows that Halloween candy is bad news, especially if you love black Twizzlers and Licorice Allsorts like me. Last year the FDA warned that, "for people 40 or older, eating two ounces of black licorice a day for about two weeks could land you in the hospital with an irregular heart rhythm (arrhythmia).” It's a wonder I am still alive.

This year, before you bring home all those giant bags of "fun-sized" candy bars to hand out to the innocents who do not yet have heart disease, diabetes, cancer and high cholesterol, consider this:
1. Candy has no nutritional value. None. Not any.
2. Take a look around and see all the fat kids. Obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a 2011 population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
3. The tons and tons of non-recyclable packaging for all that candy are good for nobody, except maybe your private garbage hauler. (Ours charges almost $30 each month.)
4. What's Halloween for again?

This year I am handing out pretzels and raisins, since they are also available pre-packaged and ready to go. Then when nobody shows up, which happens here in rural Maine, but still you never know and so you buy the stuff anyway, I won't be alone with all the leftovers.