A Healthy Halloween!

Hope you are all starting to enjoy the crispiness of the fall air, the changes of colors and stepping into the fact that fall is FINALLY here, better late than never.

And with that, we have to start thinking about Halloween. While Halloween has dark origins, I want to share this information because people will still celebrate and I want them to be able to have clean, healthy options.  These healthy treat options can also be used for birthday parties, Easter, and any other holidays where candy typically plays a pivotal role.

If you have kids who celebrate Halloween, and if you are planning to provide treats for kids visiting your house, I want to make sure you have the resources needed to provide clean and healthy options. I know a lot of you spend a ton of time figuring out what your kids are going to wear, but I don’t think we put as much focus into what they are going to be consuming, or even, what you are going to be providing.

Personally, as a family value, we don’t believe in giving kids ANY more sugar (and other crap) than they are already getting, so I tend to have a basket full of toys. I find that this is something the kids take away and can play and use for days after Halloween, whereas the candy is a complete waste. As a mom-trick, having little novel toys to play with also creates more downtime for mom.

As kids grow older, and they do go and trick or treat with friends, they grab candy crap, which they know they will not be eating. But many people have now started the tradition of talking about the Switch Witch and the Candy Fairy (like the Tooth Fairy). So the Candy Fairy comes at night and grabs the candy on their bed and takes it away and Switch Witch switches the candy for a toy.

If you are purchasing candy or other food items for Halloween, I implore you to read the labels. There is a TON of junk in most candy. I am always on the lookout for clean candies. However, even the MOST organic of them contain natural flavors. Finding clean candy without natural flavors is a huge challenge, but I think that I have found some GEMS for you and your kids, that they will love!

Some families say well, it’s ok for them to have a little bit of candy and get rid of the rest. That is ok too, if it works for your family, but if you or your kids have any health issues, you don’t want those issues to be exacerbated by a moment of weakness with your kids and allowing them something that could really hurt them in the long run. At home, we don’t have lee-ways with non-food. Meaning, if an item is a NON-FOOD item (as is all junk), we call it that and never put it in our mouths. However, we do allow food-based treats as outlined below.

This can be a ‘tricky’ time. Pun intended. Hopefully, some of these will appeal to you and your kids.

To make your life a little easier, I wanted to share some ideas that we offer trick-or-treaters and they are always things that my kids can eat and enjoy too.

1. Think about NOT giving Candy. There are so many toys that the kids would love to play with that do not have to be expensive and also are fun games. For example (click on the links to purchase):

• Mini-frisbees
• Wooden airplanes
• Mini-Rubik’s cubes
• Boxes of color pencils and a little coloring book or notepad
• Silly putty
• Slime
• Tic Tac Toe
• PlayDoh
• Mini-Bubbles
• Mini Spinning Tops
• Mini Yo-yos
• Maze Puzzles

2. Sunmaid Mini-boxes of Raisins – if you can find something organic, even better – but these are GREAT compared to the other candy crap (and no I will not mince words. 99.9% of candy is TOTAL, UTTER, CRAP) at most people’s homes. According to the Medical Medium, Anthony William, raisins do more for you than even goji berries, which have been touted for years as a superfood!

3. Yum Earth has a lot of natural flavors in their brands, but there is the plain Cheeky Lemon Hard Candy that has no natural flavor in them and only lemon oil. I communicated with the owners about this and they confirmed it to me. Purchase them here. The ingredient label says natural flavors (lemon oils) but it is not a true natural flavor, since it is based on an oil extract.

4. Cocomels. These are coconut milk caramel candies and of all candies, I have ever eaten in my life, these are the most amazing tasting and decadent in flavor. And they are SO SO clean. They have different flavors including plain, sea salt & espresso, for example. Purchase them here:

– Naked caramels: https://jjssweets.com/collections/naked-cocomels
– Cocomel Bites: https://jjssweets.com/collections/cocomel-bites-new
– Chocolate Covered Cocomels: https://jjssweets.com/collections/chocolate-covered-cocomels

5. You can pack either potato chips from Jackson’s Honest (they are cooked in coconut oil and they have some organic versions as well) or an organic version of Kettle Brand Chips into small plastic bags tied on top. Don’t buy non-organic versions of the Kettle Brand Chips as they contain canola oil and some of the organic ones even have natural flavors or MSG and you must read the labels really really carefully.

6. I am not typically a fan of juice boxes, but you can find mini-juice boxes (even organic). Granted, they have sugar in them too, but not nearly as much as in the candy crap and may even provide the kids a teeny tiny bit of hydration, which is wicked away by the excitement of being bundled up in a non-ventilated costume and all the other crap they are consuming on the way over. Here are some good choices:

1. • I really wanted to suggest the Honest Kids juice boxes but every single one of them has natural flavors in them. They are 100% organic, but know this. Unfortunately, knowing how much damage natural flavors cause to our brains, because they are an unknown form of MSG, I cannot recommend them. Please do not fall into the trap of purchasing something that is 100% organic, without reading the ingredient labels. I would rather give my kids something with no natural flavors and that is otherwise clean and not organic. If you would like to know more about natural flavors and hidden sources of MSG in foods, check out the Truth in Labeling website.
   • R. W. Knudson is a great juice company and has some organic products too. I like their 100% organic Juice boxes in apple are the cleanest ones around. They have other flavors too, like pear, grape, and lemonade, but buyer beware – all have natural flavors in them. Do not get caught up in the excitement of finding these and unknowingly give kids stuff that is bad for their brain.  The same company produces a smaller sized box called ‘Sensible Sippers’ and they all have natural flavors so avoid these. Obviously, nothing is  100% perfect, nothing this commercial ever is, for example with adding ascorbic acid, but remember this is not for someone on a healing diet, these are the best choices we have available for Halloween!! For the kids.
   • Juicy Juice is not overall the best brand but their apple juice has the cleanest ingredients I could find. However, I would not touch the other flavors as natural flavors are present in all of them.

7. Honey Sticks. Now hands down, this is probably the healthiest treat you could give a little child. It’s delicious, it’s sweet, and wildflower honey is SO SO SO good for you. Unlike all the other candy crap it’s not fully of horrid sugar, artificial colors and natural flavors, MSG and other ingredients that do so much harm to a child’s delicate immune system. Raw honey sticks are healing, boosting the immune system and are so incredibly nourishing. What we have to get our head around is that you can purchase bags and bags of mini-candy for Halloween for as little as $20 – $30. And some of these products will have you spending more than that, if you choose to. However, sometimes, just going with lots of ONE item can be super helpful.  I like this brand of Glory Bee Wildflower Honey Sticks.

8. Unreal Candy. This is a relatively new brand of candy that has become popular in the last one year. Other than one product, they have all vegan candy. They have candy that is like smarties or M&M’s but without all the gunky additives and GMO & glyphosate-sprayed ingredients. Of course it contains cane sugar, so you have to be careful overall with this and other candies. They also have a candy that is similar to the Bounty candy, which is basically a chocolate covered coconut center. However between their ‘gems’ and nut butter cups, our kids have some excellent options to indulge in this Halloween!

A great resource for clean products – everything from sweet treats to home and safety products – check out my Amazon Store…where I take the guesswork out of clean shopping!

Let me know if any of these ideas appeal to you and if you have ideas of your own, please share in the comments below!!!