Scary facts about Halloween

Halloween is around the corner and treats are lurking in every corner!

It’s hard to resist the temptation to have one Baby Ruth at 10am at work, a
small Mars bite in the middle of the afternoon in a colleagues’ office and, before going to bed a small pouch of M&Ms.

Seems a lot? Read on! The numbers are scary!

Over 160 million Americans will buy candies this year to feed all the trick and treaters’ bags, that’s half of the American population!
The average consumption is between 5,000 and 7,000 calories per child!
7,000 extra calories translate into 2 pounds of fat!
It takes about 50 hours of walking or 15 hours of playing basketball to burn those extra calories.
A child will consume the equivalent of 3 cups of sugar (that’s about 169 sugarcubes!)

What can you do for yourself and for your kids or your friends’ kids?

1. Don’t buy candies for your own home or office. Far from the eyes far from the stomach I like to say
2. Have something to chew on like a sugar free mint gum when you are out and about to be less tempted to grab one piece here and one piece there
3. Give smaller containers to your kids
4. Give out only one candy per kid
5. What to do with the candies not eaten on Halloween eve? Throw away. As much as I am against throwing away food those sugary treats are not foods we need anyway. Don’t keep them around or you will end up eating them. No need to share those as giving sugar is NOT a healthy gift.
6. Increase your physical activity around Halloween: Add 6,000 steps per day and one more strength training session per week. If you have kids, take them with you.
7. If you really want sweets make them yourself and teach your kids to make savory Halloween treats like my mummy wraps or a homemade pumpkin ice cream.