This commentary is by Andrea Grayson of Charlotte, a part-time faculty member in the master of public health program at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, and the author of “The Sweet Tooth Dilemma.”
All over the country, neighborhoods are taking out the spooky decorations, supermarkets are stocking their shelves with miniature candies, and costume stores are selling out of the time-honored favorites of witches, goblins and superheroes.
Halloween can be a bonding ritual for parents with their kids. Making or shopping for costumes that bring children joy is something that everyone looks forward to. Most children are imagination machines, and Halloween affords them the opportunity to step out of their day-to-day and adopt an alter ego. Add to that the out-of-the-ordinary nighttime ritual of walking door-to-door with the promise of candy at every stop, and it all adds up to a holiday filled with magic.
But the creative ritual part of the holiday, where children are free to imagine and be playful outside of the normal bounds of play, often ends up taking a back seat to the focus on amassing large amounts of candy.
But after all the ghouls are gone, Halloween becomes a horror for your child’s health.
We eat too much sugar, and it’s worse for us than we previously thought.
Sugar and refined carbohydrates deteriorate our health in two keyways: through insulin resistance (the precursor to diabetes and possibly linked to Alzheimer’s disease), and through the mechanism of inflammation in the gut (now linked to heart disease, among many other diseases caused by prolonged systemic inflammation).
Some of the many conditions and diseases caused or worsened by sugar consumption may not show severe symptoms for 20-plus years (similar to smoking), though more and more diseases of adulthood are showing up in children, including fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, and Type 2 diabetes.
Additionally, excessive sugar consumption impacts the brain and organ development of growing children, negatively influencing behavioral, cognitive and metabolic development.
For these reasons, it is a good idea for parents to keep sweets as an occasional treat, rather than a daily or multiple-times-per-day habit.
But wait! All fun is not lost!
Reenvisioning a healthier Halloween
Little by little, family by family, we can improve the health of our communities by making small and determined choices. Here are some ideas to increase the positive parts and minimize the negative parts of this super-fun holiday.
- Overall, try shifting the focus of Halloween to a creative, experiential event. Invent and make a costume with your child’s input. Consider turning your house (or a friend’s house) into a haunted mansion, fun house, or magical garden.
- If it is too late to start deflecting the expectation of a candy windfall with your child(ren), consider creating a “buy-back” ritual. For every piece of candy they give you, you will give them a dime, quarter, or credit toward a desired toy, or just exchange for non-food treats (see list below). Moms can become the “Switch Witch” and join in the costume fun.
- Talk to your child’s teachers about having non-candy, non-sugar Halloween rituals in the classroom. Mask-making could be a good in-class activity instead of focusing on the candy.
- If you have a community or neighborhood listserv, bring up the subject and suggest neighbors offer non-sugar treats in addition to sugary ones. This is becoming more common because of awareness to allergies.
- Find candy alternatives, an important feature of allergy-aware safety in the community. The Teal Pumpkin Project has a focus on non-food Halloween treats, as millions of kids have food allergies. They suggest offering food and non-food items, so kids can fully participate.
- Keep candy treats separate from non-food treats. If you decide to offer candy as well, make sure the two are kept separate. On Halloween night, if you’re offering both food and non-food treats, you can simply present both bowls to every child. This way, the child with food allergies can feel even more included (versus them having to say they have food allergies). You may also be surprised about how many kids pick a non-food treat.
Here is a list of non-food ways to give out fun treats:
- Colorful glass marbles
- Stickers
- Glow sticks
- Bubbles
- Art Supplies
- Playing cards
- Bouncy balls
- A small bell
- Spider rings or mood rings
- Drawing or coloring pencils
- Wax crayons
- Small rocks painted like eyeballs
- Mini cardboard-cover notepads
- A bag of jacks
- Packets of vegetable or wildflower seeds
- A Happy Halloween card
- Printed-out instructions for a cool magic trick
- Small ghost rag dolls made out of old T-shirts and cotton balls
- “Potion” bottles made from small recycled bottles and water with natural food coloring
- A few sheets of colorful origami paper with a pattern or two
- Natural cord and a few colorful glass beads to make a necklace or bracelet
- Seashells
- Small balls of yarn for crafts
- Crystals
- Colorful polished stones
- Cotton jump ropes (no plastic handles)
- Hacky sacks
- Small wooden paint brushes
- A shiny 2023 quarter
- Costco has a giant package of Legos. It would be really cool to put four or five bricks together as a Halloween treat.
- Go through your own kids’ toy bins to find small things they no longer use that other kids may, such as Matchbox cars, Hex bugs, etc.
For more ideas for non-food items, click here. Talk to your kids about how you can make Halloween a magical, creative, healthy, and not-so-wasteful holiday that is fun for everyone.
