If you’re out trick-or-treating with the children this Halloween and you spot a snaggle-toothed jack-o-lantern grinning at you out of the darkness, consider using that leering visage for a teaching moment:
“Kids, that pumpkin used to have a full set of teeth just like you and me, but it ate too much Halloween candy when it was a wee sprat of a squash, and look at it now.”
Then give the little devils – or witches, ghosts or princesses – the news that there’s a limit on the candy content of the holiday this year and not every sugar-soaked piece plopped into their treat bags will make it to their mouths.
If you don’t think that object lesson will suffice to save them from a sugar orgy, then check out this list of suggestions from Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital on other ways to keep Halloween healthy and the candy consumption under control.
Previously: Debunking a Halloween myth: Sugar and hyperactivity
Photo by peasap
