3 Simple Ways to Make Halloween Candy Less Stressful (and More Fun)

From renowned family dietician, Sofie De Niet

Photo from Seasonal Family Almanac, by Allison Usavage

Hello dear friends,

I’m very excited to share this email with you, featuring timely advice from Sofie De Niet, a friend and family dietician with a refreshing approach to food.

If you’re like me, the excess of processed sweets on Halloween sets me on edge.

Instead of embracing the fun, I find myself bracing for a meltdown—not just on Halloween, but also in its wake.

Clearly, my strategies over the past few years, from the “switch witch” to “one-a-day” lunchbox candies, haven’t been working.

So I asked Sofie for tips on how to reduce my candy-stress this year, and have FUN with my children while they’re slurping up the magic (and the sugar).

Whether or not you’re trick-or-treating, Sofie’s tips for talking about and managing sweets are applicable to everyone.

---

Listen to Sofie’s Recording:

Listen to Sofie’s 6-minute podcast on 3 Tips to Deal With Halloween Candy.

---

Sofie phrases Halloween as a time of “food abundance,” for which we’re not always in a mindset to manage.

As kids, we often learned that when food was abundant, it should also be “saved” or “restricted.” On top of this conditioning, we’ve also been hammered with the message that sugar is “bad.”

This is true for me, and as a result, the abundance of candy at Halloween can make me feel very stressed.

While Sofie would never endorse an eating pattern that consists 100% of candy, she believes it’s important to avoid restricting portions and trash talking food.

“There are no good and bad foods, but there are good and bad interactions with foods.”

For children, the more we restrict and disapprove of candy, the more appealing it becomes.

My older daughter has had little interest in sweets since she was in my belly, but my youngest has an extremely sweet tooth (or twenty).

I’ve been justifying restricting her sweet intake with beliefs—yes, even observations—like “my daughter doesn’t eat a ‘real’ meal after she’s had candy,” and “her mood changes when she eats candy,” and “she’s not balancing out candy with ‘healthy’ foods.”

But when I think about Sofie’s tips, I can see how I’ve helped create an unhealthy complex around candy, that explodes on Halloween.

I haven’t trusted my daughter to moderate her own intake, and therefore haven’t given her the opportunity to try.

So while Sofie acknowledges that it’s not easy to quell our own fears and beliefs, it’s essential to cultivate positive conversations and emotions around candy (and all food), and trust that our children are capable of establishing their own healthy eating patterns.

In fact, Sofie suggests that if a particular food is in high demand (and restriction), we may want to consider offering that food more. Over time, it will lose its appeal.

We can also shift the focus from candy and sweets to the tradition surrounding it. In the case of Halloween, it may be about the ritual of building an ancestor altar, dressing up, trick-or-treating with friends.

But since candy is a focus we can’t ignore, I asked Sofie if she could suggest 3 ways I (and other parents) could better manage Halloween candy, and begin moving towards a more fun, balanced, positive approach to sweets in our family.

---

3 Stress-Free Tips for Approaching Candy:

1. Avoid Restricting Portions: Allow children to choose the amount of candy they want to eat rather than imposing strict portion limits. Restricting portions can make the candy feel even more desirable, leading kids to fixate on it. Trust that they can learn to self-regulate when given the chance. It’s helpful to allow candy alongside other food to help regulate their glycemic index.

2. Set Boundaries in Time, Not Amount: Instead of controlling how much candy children can have, create designated times for enjoying candy. This could mean including candy as part of a snack or meal, which helps normalize it as just another part of eating (while helping with the glycemix index), rather than something off-limits or exclusively special.

3. Avoid Labeling Food, and Stay Positive: Avoid labeling candy as “bad” or using negative language around it. Talking negatively about candy can create a forbidden allure and complicate kids' relationships with food. Emphasize the fun of Halloween and focus on the tradition rather than the candy itself.

---

Of course, switching gears over night isn’t that simple.

Sofie offers an affordable and incredibly supportive monthly membership where she provides ongoing help to families with a range of food-related challenges, from picky eaters to dealing with processed foods and more. I highly recommend checking her offerings.

In the meantime, don’t stress the candy and HAVE FUN.

Who knows, maybe this year I’ll even bring my own basket trick-or-treating (instead of stealing the kids’ butterfingers)!

With broom in hand,

♡ Emma

P.S. The November Meal Plan drops NEXT THURSDAY! Subscribe now if you don’t want to miss it. It will include a collection of recipes that can act as a done-for-you Thanksgiving meal plan (yes, including the best way to prep and cook a turkey), or simply act as a seasonal collection of recipes to keep you and your family nourished!