Better Treats

I’m going to take a controversial stand today. Any time you attack a tradition you're going to receive flack for it. Halloween and Trick-or-Treating is almost a national pastime. It’s what defines the calendars of October. Stores are dressed in orange and black. Costumes are everywhere. Commercials advertise Halloween specials.

Halloween itself is fine, but the concept of Trick-or-Treating needs to be modified. Just because it’s a tradition doesn’t mean it’s a good tradition. The Mayans used to sacrifice hundreds of people just to satisfy the gods and to make sure the cycle of life continued. Trick-or-Treating isn’t as bad of course but you get the point.

Trick-or-Treating originated centuries ago in Europe when poor people would sing songs in return for food. I don’t know about you but I can’t remember the last time I heard Halloween carols. And I can’t remember the last time I gave a cake to a kid.

Why am I attacking Halloween? Almost one-third of children today are considered obese or overweight. Kids are getting less and less exercise. Type-II diabetes is appearing almost at birth these days. Even if kids were at a normal weight, I would still advocate against the avalanche of candy we give kids on one night.

I admit that I celebrated Halloween until I was about 13 or 14. I went out as Dick Tracy, Batman, a Ninja Turtle, and a hockey player. I even impressed everyone with my Bill Clinton mask and white stains on my pants in October 1998. My goal every year was to gather more candy than anyone else. I have vivid memories of my grocery-sized bag filled with candy.

It appears, then, that I’m trying to deny today’s generation what I once had. This is true, but kids also used to be able to work in coal mines and they used to smoke at a much younger age. Marijuana and cocaine were once legal, so should we make those drugs freely available to kids?

We call Trick-or-Treating a tradition but then we mock hot dog-eating contests as insane, gross, and even dangerous. But consider Trick-or-Treating as a candy-eating contest. Kids eat enormous amounts of candy over the span of several days, much of which is consumed on one evening.

Let’s look at the nutritional quality of a typical Halloween feast:
5th Avenue (1 full-size bar) -- 280 calories, 14g fat
Snickers (1 full-size bar) -- 280 calories, 14g fat
Twix Caramel (2 bars) -- 280 calories, 14g fat
Baby Ruth (1 full-size bar) -- 280 calories, 13g fat
Butterfinger (1 full-size bar) -- 270 calories, 11g fa
Milky Way (1 full-size bar) -- 260 calories, 10g fat
Mr. Goodbar (1 full-size bar) -- 210 calories, 14g fat

What can you give instead? There are plenty of options:
- Lolli-pops
- Chewing gum
- Baseball cards
- Raisins
- Cashews
- Sunflower seeds
- Microwave popcorn
- Small bags of crackers/chips

If you must give away traditional candy, then go with Starburst, Jolly Ranchers, Pixy Sticks, or Smarties. And whatever you give away, make sure you only give one piece to each child. Buy less than you think, and stop giving away candy after three hours. Kids who stay out late probably have more than enough.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t participate and be the Scrouge of Halloween. Don’t turn off your lights. Don’t ignore the knocking on the door. Just make wiser choices for the kids.

And what can you do with leftover candy? You have several choices:
-Eat it all and get fat
-Give it to co workers at work and let them get fat
-Throw it away
-Best option: take the candy out of the wrappers, and place the candy in a compost bin. If you don’t have a bin, go to Whole Foods and dump it. Next spring, that leftover candy will be the rich organic soil that brings May flowers.

Kevin