Halloween Candy: How Much is Too Much?

Is there a big, delicious bowl of candy corn staring at you from across the room right now? Taunting you? Fanning the flames of your desire to snack until every last one of them is gone? It happens every year around this time, like clockwork. Is there really any way to resist that demonic candy?

Candy Overdose
Unless you work at a candy factory, chances are you're not temped by buckets of candy on a daily basis, and you may not have developed the skill of just saying no.

How you define the difference between a healthy sugar buzz and overdose is your business, but there is at least one easy and fairly objective way to gauge your level of candy intoxication -- the nutritional facts label.

The FDA, among others, would urge you to make use of this to determine what is a proper dose (also called a "serving") of a particular candy. For example, after consulting the back of our handy bag of Snickers "Fun Size" candy bars, we observed that a serving size was two bars (two measly bars, people!), containing 160 calories and 8g of fat.

According to the all knowing "Food Pyramid," Halloween candy falls under a category known as "discretionary calories" -- i.e. there's not longer a brick on the pyramid called "Fat, Oils, and Sweets." According the USDA's food pharaohs, most people's allowance for discretionary calories falls between 100-300 calories a day. "Many people," explains MyPyramid.gov, "Have used up this allowance before lunch-time!"

Combating Candy Overdose
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends purchasing out "non-treats" like coloring books instead of candy to help our nation's youngsters (and probably their sugar-craving parents as well) avoid becoming part of the worldwide obesity epidemic. They also recommend that parents keep their kids from eating any of their candy haul until they get home from trick or treating -- good luck with that!

A couple of good suggestions come from the Baltimore Sun. One of these is to make sure your kids eat a good meal before they hit the candy trail. Another suggestion is to "think small," because smaller trick-or-treat buckets equals less candy, or should anyway.

Good Candy vs. Bad Candy
Finally, there is one last method to limit the impact of Halloween on our collective waistlines that takes almost no self-control. That is to buy what we're going to call "health candy." Yes, it does exists. However, healthy candies are rarely in high demand with the mainstream trick-or-treating public.

Apparently, healthy candy snacks like Yummy Earth's organic gummy bears are pretty darned yummy. And one serving of these squishy bears contains 100% your daily Vitamin C.