By: Coach Maria - Salus Nutritionist & Food Expert
Follow us in this 3-part series on Season of Sugar. For tips on how to make better food choices and avoiding the sugar load during:
1. Halloween
2. Thanksgiving
3. Christmas
Walk into any store and you will see rows of candy and sweets to entice us. Many of the stores don't even wait until the end of summer before beginning their Halloween sugar campaign!
Regardless of where you go, we are already in full Season-of-Sugar swing!
From Halloween to Easter and all the holiday's in between, the sweet revolving door does not stop. Bags and bags of candy for trick-or-treaters, a gluttony-feast for Thanksgiving desserts and sweets, sugar ladened gifts and cookie plates for Christmas cheer and, ofcourse, ringing in the New Year with more of the same.
We get a blink-of-the-eye break before the stores fill up with heart-shaped candy and chocolate for Valentine's day, everything-green for St. Patrick's day and then followed quickly by chocolate Easter bunnies and plastic eggs filled with more candy!
Enough said.
For the next 8 months, when we venture out of our home, we will be inundated with these temptations at just about everywhere we shop.
As many of you already know, refined sugar is linked to:
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- Inflammation
- Depression
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Skin Irritation
There IS good news. You DO have a CHOICE!
Halloween:
We have a tradition in our household when it comes to Halloween. Rather than purchasing bags of candy to pass out to ghosts and goblins, we will be cooking up 100% beef hot dogs and making hot apple cider.
Initially, our children grumbled and bellyached, but we stuck to the plan and set a table right in front of our garage.
The plan worked!
Not only did our little visitors enjoy warm-the-belly food and drink during a cold night, but the parents enjoyed it as well!
If that isn't something you are willing to do and prefer to stick with the traditional candy route; at the very least, don't buy candy until the very last minute, so you don't have the temptation staring you in the face each day.
When purchasing candy, choose a type of candy you don't enjoy - this way, the temptation to dip into the candy bowl will be low.
Halloween Idea:
Photo & recipe Martha Stewart
For the ghost, use your favorite mashed potato recipe or, for lower carb, use this one.
For the pumpkin, use a mashed sweet potato recipe.
Place in a pastry bag or snip the end of a ziploc.
Pipe the mashed potato into a ghost shape and the sweet potato into a pumpkin shape.
For the ghost eyes, use either black sesame seeds, or peppercorns work well also!
For the pumpkin stem, use cilantro or parsley leaves.
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