Don’t Be Afraid to Offer Healthy Snacks for Halloween

Utica, NY – Creative costumes, haunted houses, and trick-or-treating make Halloween one of the year’s most interesting and fun holidays. On October 31, children disguised as witches, clowns, ghosts and action heroes will race door-to-door asking neighbors to fill their bags with all sorts of treats. This Halloween, the American Heart Association says don’t be scared to offer trick-or-treaters healthy snacks … so kids don’t get “tricked” into treats high in cholesterol or fat.

American Heart Association national scientific statements have recommended that schools should teach and encourage heart-healthy behavior to reduce the number of children who are overweight, physically inactive, and engaging in unhealthy habits such as smoking. A “frightening” trend noted in American Heart Association scientific statements, and cited in many national surveys, is the dramatic increase in the prevalence of overweight and obese children and youth in our country. Obesity rates have doubled in children and tripled in adolescents over the last 20 years, says the American Heart Association. One in seven young people is obese and one in three is overweight.

Halloween can bring out the sweetest monster in all of us! Consider these tips to keep your ghosts and goblins a little healthier along the way, and Happy Halloween!

1. Feed ‘em First – make sure your kids are fueled up for trick-or-treating with a healthy snack or meal

before they go trick-or-treating so they don’t dip into their treats.

2. Pillow Cases are for Pillows – give the kids smaller treat bags like recycled grocery bags so they won’t bring home too many sweets, and keep the pillow cases and trash bags at home!

3. Surprise ‘em with Health, not Horror – Be the healthy house on the block by offering treats like pre-packaged snack-sized dried fruit, pretzels, or baby carrots.

4. Give ‘em Treasures for Treats – Hand out boxes of crayons, stickers, colored pencils, erasers, Halloween tattoos (the removable kind!), or rubber spiders!

5. Patrol Those Treats – After inspecting all treats to make sure they’re safe, remind the kids to eat their treats in moderation, so they last longer (wink, wink).

The American Heart Association says keep the fun in Halloween, but think about offering your neighborhood trick-or-treaters healthy treats, such as individually wrapped packages of:

Raisins or other dried fruit
Animal crackers
Trail mix
Pretzels
Sugar-free gum

These snacks are all healthy substitutes for sweets that may be high in calories and fat. Offering nutritious snacks will help children maintain a healthy lifestyle and promote cardiovascular health. Obese and overweight children are at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and cardiovascular disease. Being overweight increases the strain on the heart and raises blood pressure and blood cholesterol. Overweight children are more likely to be overweight adults. In fact, studies show that a 12 year-old child who is overweight has a 75 percent chance of becoming an overweight adult.

For more information, please visit www.americanheart.org.

Don’t Be Afraid to Offer Healthy Snacks for Halloween

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