There’s something magical about Halloween and the fun and mystery that goes along with the holiday. What’s not fun however are the scary ingredients you’d find in many of the Halloween candies and treats. What ends up in your children’s trick-or-treating bags could frighten even the scariest monsters out there.
It’s inevitable that our kids will end up with lots of candies this Halloween. Sweets were traditionally handed out when the holiday first originated over 2000 years ago. Of course modern day times has made the holiday into more of a celebration rather than a tradition to ward off evil spirits, but sweets and treats were very much prominent back in history. Perhaps back in the olden days the treats were a bit healthier and were mostly homemade of some kind. Now, sweets and treats can come in all forms and most of them are not quite healthy for our children. It’s not easy to tell our kids “no” to their Halloween treats, but it is our responsibility to reduce or control what we buy on Halloween and what we allow our kids to indulge on.
In my recent post 10 WAYS KIDS CAN ROCK IT HEALTHY, I listed some of the scariest ingredients found in most of the conventional sweets and treats. These ingredients are pretty common in practically all of the food you’d find with conventional companies and are used in the store-bought sweets. If you want to be safe with your sweets and treats this Halloween, look for candies made without genetically modified ingredients and have at least 70% organic ingredients. There are companies who have been Non-GMO Project Verified, meaning their ingredients are tested and ensured to not contain anything that’s been genetically enhanced or engineered. When shopping for treats look for companies using only natural and organic ingredients. These companies include:
Surf Sweets/TruJoy Sweets – gummy worms, jelly beans, gummy spiders
Amy’s Kitchen – chocolate snack bars
Torie&Howard – fruit candy chews and hard candy
EnviroKidz – kids tested snack bars
Nature’s Path – snack bars
Chocxo – organic chocolate
Endangered Species Chocolates – organic chocolates
Annies Homegrown- bunny snacks, gummy candy
YumEarth – organic lollipops, hard candy
So the question comes to what happens when our kids end up with not so healthy treats this Halloween? If you’re inclined to just let them eat some, pick out only a few that have better ingredients if not at least non-GMO or organic. Keep in mind that certain sweets are sticky to your children’s teeth so not only are they less healthy, but they can cause damage to their teeth and gums. I like to buy sweets such as Surf Sweets Halloween edition packs, Zollipops which are made with Xylitol (a natural sugar-free sugar alternative), and Spry gum and mints. And when I don’t buy candies for my son or the trick-or-treaters, I like to hand out non-sweet items such as Halloween themed pencils, erasers, and notepads. These are also useful and probably won’t end up in the trash.
You can find all of these healthier sweets at most natural and organic stores as well as online at their websites: Surf sweets (http://www.surfsweets.com/), Zollipops (http://zollipops.com/), Spry (http://www.xlear.com/).
Have a happy and safe Halloween!
Happymomblogger 
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