THE "TRICK" TO EATING HALLOWEEN TREATS!

Believe it or not, there is a trick, or should I say scientific principle, that can help anyone enjoy indulging in a few treats without gaining weight.  I bet most of you right about now are thinking "Wow!  I'm surprised she's even saying we can eat candy!"  Just to be clear, candy is not a nutritionally dense food, far from it.  But it is tasty and even when we know something isn't that great for us, most of the time that will take a back seat to what we want in the moment.  Especially on occasions that typically involve a lot of sweets - Christmas, Valentines, Easter, and of course Halloween.

There's no way the kids will ever give up trick-or-treating, or any way parents will forego sharing in the abundance to "keep them from getting rotten teeth...." so why not learn how indulge and minimize the carnage so to speak?  It's pretty simple really.  

Let's get back to some basics for a moment.  Every food, nutritious or otherwise, can all be categorized as either a protein, fat or carbohydrate.  Yes, all foods. and candy is no exception. Any guesses as to which one candy is?  Yep, it's that nasty, four-letter "c" word, a "carb".  And yes, usually when people are saying to "cut carbs" or even "eliminate carbs" from their food choices, candy and other refined foods would indeed be the ones they are referring to, not the fruits and veggies - those we keep.  Always.  Ok, so back to Halloween.

As most of you regular readers have probably guessed by now, the scientific principle I referred to at the beginning goes back to our PFC every 3.  Science tells us that when we fuel our bodies with a balance of a protein, fat and carb (PFC), within one hour of waking and every 3 hours throughout the day (every 3), blood sugar remains stable, metabolism is turned on and functioning optimally and fat is released into the body to be burned as energy.  Do this on a consistent basis, and the benefits are noticeable, huge and in some cases even life changing.

Now that we know Halloween treats are a carb, and we know we have to eat PFC every 3 to create and maintain optimal conditions within our bodies, simply treat the candy as you would any other carb and balance it by adding a protein and a fat.  The easiest way to do this would be to have your treats after a meal.  Having a high quality protein like fish, chicken, turkey, etc., with some steamed veggies and salad topped off with a mini Snickers bar or two will effectively help to keep blood sugar stabilized and therefore avoiding the sugar spike and dreaded fat storage that is caused by eating the mini Snickers bars on their own. Indulgence?  Satisfied.  Carnage?  Minimized.  Metabolism fired up and burning fat?  Priceless!

Let's take this to school now shall we?  This part is for all the parents who, on Tuesday morning, will be dreading the grumpy, tired kids that will come home after school after munching away on all that candy they took with them in their lunch boxes. Instead of the dread, why not use it as an opportunity to teach about balance and health?  Let your kids know that for each sugary treat the school allows them to bring, they must also have a protein snack to go with it.  Cheese strings, individual greek yogurts (not ever to be confused with the glorified pudding found in tubes of yogurt), turkey pepperoni sticks, hard-boiled eggs are all excellent examples of protein-rich foods that, when eaten in combination with their sugary snacks, will keep your kids balanced and on track. Sugar spikes?  Eliminated.  Energy and focus?  On track.  Happy teachers, happy parents?  Priceless!