Halloween … you know it’s that time of the year when you see stores filled with sugary treats of all kinds. A sugar addicts worst nightmare! Halloween is associated with “treats” -  candy in your office, candy that you buy for trick or treaters or candy that your kids bring home. In my private practice, Halloween is a problem for many of my clients. I see people who buy candy a few weeks in advance in anticipation of Halloween.  Of course, the bag doesn’t stay unopened for long…  many of my clients food logs reveal consumption of mini candies all day long for several days prior to and after Halloween. Or they find themselves getting into their kids stash of goodies late at night.

Here are a few problems I see:

1. Buying candy for trick or treaters too early. The longer it sits in your apartment, the greater the chances are that you will open the bag. Even nutritionists know how hard it can be to resist eating candy when it is in your apartment!

2. Candy everywhere in your office. Again, very difficult to resist when you are bored or stressed. 

3. Candy that your children bring home. How many times have you found yourself getting into their stash? You may be thinking all that sugar isn’t healthy for them, but it isn’t good for you - or your hips - either!  

 Here are the calorie contents of some popular Halloween candies:

Tips to control your intake of Halloween candy:

1. Don’t buy candy too early for trick or treaters. Try to buy it the day of Halloween or the day before.

2. Don’t buy your favorite candy. Instead, buy something you don’t love. For example, I would buy mini twizzlers instead of anything that contains chocolate (since I am a chocoholic!). You always buy something healthy like mini boxes of raisins. One of my clients asked her child what kind of treat he wanted her to buy for the trick or treaters. Luckily he said “Smarties”. This was one of the few candies she doesn’t like!

3. Consider leaving the candy in a basket outside of your apartment. The less you see of it, the less you will eat.

4. Dispose of any leftover Halloween candy that you don’t give out.

5. If you have candy at work, try to limit yourself to 100 calories or so of candy a day. Check out the above chart for calorie content. If you find that you lose control once you have even one piece of candy, DON’T even start with it! Bring in a more “appropriate” snack.

6. Decide how you will handle your child’s Halloween candy. Perhaps allow your child 2 mini candies a day for a week. Throw the rest out if you find you can’t control yourself if it is around.

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