Healthy Candy For Your Children

Halloween is just around the corner. For many parents it can be a sugar fix nightmare. Are there any solutions to help slow the decay from what should be a fun holiday for the kids? Are there any healthy options to hand out that won’t harm teeth like normal sugar filled treats?

The candy and kids dilemma is a tough one. Kids love candy, but candy is rotten for children. High-fructose corn syrup, sugar, artificial coloring, bovine gelatin, oh my!

A New York Times article, 6 Food Mistakes Parents Make stated: “A large body of research shows that if a parent restricts a food, children just want it more,” and, “Other studies show that children whose food is highly restricted at home are far more likely to binge when they have access to forbidden foods.”

So we look to the future, both in healthy body and healthy mouth. I stumbled upon a source for candy that meets any number of requirements: Vegan, organic, fair trade, gluten free, non-allergenic, kosher and Feingold. Imagine! The source comes from a mom-and-daughters candy team who started a Web site called NaturalCandyStore.com. It’s extra terrific as you can browse by category, and each candy is labeled with an easy-to-identify icon telling you which categories it falls under.

For the time being Halloween and sugar go together. It’s a daunting task to try and stop all sugar intake during Halloween. A better strategy is to just monitor the amount, make sure they brush and floss, and change what kind of candy you hand out this Halloween. Pass the new movement.