How To Have A Healthy Halloween

Kids and many adults who enjoy this holiday get dressed up and while the kids usually go out trick-or-treating, adults venture off to various ghoulish Halloween parties.

There is fun and excitement in the air! Some spooky sights and eerie music is played and generally speaking everyone is having a great time. Everyone that is, except your pancreas - and a few other organs as well.

So as fun and exciting as this holiday can be, living in the enlightened times that we do, we have to be aware and accept the fact that during Halloween, our bodies and health have the potential to seriously suffer.

We cannot deny the fact that the way Halloween is set up today, it is not making things any better where our obesity, diabetes and ADHD levels, especially in children, are concerned. We also cannot hide behind the excuse of “Oh it’s just one day”, because the treats collected in that one day usually last and have ongoing effects for at least the next few months.

Hence this article will share with you some ideas of how to have a fun and healthy Halloween, whether you are giving out treats to the children OR you are the parent of a child going out to collect treats. Ultimately, where optimal health is concerned, we have to understand that we can still enjoy and participate in the fun of Halloween, without stressing our bodies and diminishing our health in the process. Where Did Halloween and All the Candy Come From?

Halloween originated in Ireland, as a Celtic, pre-Christian festival to celebrate the end of the harvest season. Over the first few centuries, it acquired some religious ties to All Saints Day, which falls on November 1st.

In present-day Ireland, adults and children dress up as “scary” creatures (e.g., ghosts, ghouls, zombies, witches and goblins), light bonfires, and enjoy firework displays. Dressing up originated from the belief that the dead walked the Earth this night and hence one wanted to “blend-in” when in the outdoors.

This gradually evolved into trick-or-treating because children would knock on their neighbors’ doors, in order to gather fruit, nuts, and sweets for the Halloween festival.

The commercialization of Halloween in the United States did not start until the 20th century. Mass-produced Halloween costumes did not appear in stores until the 1930s, and trick-or-treating did not become a fixture of the holiday until the 1950s.

Since the 1990s, many manufacturers began producing a larger variety of Halloween home and yard decorations, and hence today turned the holiday into an economy boosting event. Today, Halloween is 2nd after Christmas for decorating one’s home.

As the Western world became more hooked on this holiday and kids regularly would dress up and go trick-or-treating, pressure resonated back to Europe, where countries like the United Kingdom became heavily influenced. In fact, between 2001 and 2006, consumer spending in the UK for Halloween rose tenfold! Why Today’s Halloween Treats Are NOT Treats At All

So here we have this fun holiday with all sorts of wonderful traditions attached to it, but today we are no longer giving out treats, like nuts, fruits or home-baked goods.

Today on Halloween, the most popular “treats” given out consist of: Chips with saturated and trans fats
Chocolates with loads of refined sugar and bad fats
Gum with artificial sweeteners, colors and flavors
Lollipops and candy full of refined sugars, artificial flavors and colors

I understand that gone are the “good old days” where we can trust baked-goods and fruits and such from strangers, but do we have to resort to “poisoning” our kids - seriously?

All it takes is for anyone of us to consciously consider the above items. Why are we giving these items, that have all negative and no positive health effects to the kids we so preciously love and want to protect?

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