Manage That Halloween Candy Binge

Who doesn’t love Halloween? It’s a holiday that is solely driven by eating candy — and lots of it.

Of course you want your kids to take full advantage of this, to enjoy the holiday and have fun trick-or-treating.

But you might also be dreading the aftermath of, “My child is up way too late and now he wants to eat all this candy … and I have to say no, right?”

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As an author and a psychology of food expert, I tell parents that letting their kids indulge for just the Halloween holiday is OK.

Insert sighs of relief.  

You don’t have to spoil the holiday and spark a battle with your kids by taking away the sweets entirely. However, you don’t want it to set kids down the slippery slope toward sugar addiction, either.

Related: Pumpkin Carving for Fun and Happiness This Fall

So how can parents manage the candy consumption?

First, let’s explain sugar addiction. Sugar actually hijacks our hormones and neurotransmitters and changes our brain, rewiring it to ensure that we will continue consuming more and more of it. In other words, it is highly addictive. And a sugar addiction is often the first step toward a lifetime of overeating and obesity.

But the good news is that a short-term sugar binge — such as on Halloween night or the next day — will not rewire the brain. It’s the consumption over a prolonged period of time that we need to watch for.

So, as long as Halloween doesn’t jump-start a long-term candy habit, you should be fine to manage it.

Here are some things you can do:

1.) Let kids enjoy and binge on their candy for one day or possibly two, but three days absolute max.

2.) Refrain from limiting their candy intake during that time. Limiting intake will create too much of a focus and possibly a fixation. Instead, allow them to indulge.

Related: Yes, Your Teens Are Too Old for Trick-or-Treating

3.) Avoid trying to replace their candy binge with, say, a binge on carrots. They’ll feel deceived and cheated, and will only crave candy more.

4.) Above all, model good eating habits year-round, with plenty of fresh fruits and veggies but minimal sweets.

Halloween is also the perfect time to talk to your children about sugar. Have the “sugar talk” to explain to them why sugar isn’t good for us. In addition to being addictive and a major culprit in weight gain, sugar is associated with a plethora of health risks, from heart and liver problems and diabetes and even cancer.

Kids should know this. They should also know that eating sugar can lead to cavities and unpleasant dentist visits.

Related: Kids and Healthy Lunches: Five Reasons Not to Sweat This

We teach our children about making good choices every day — look both ways when you cross the street, use your words instead of fists, do your homework first before playing. Why not teach them how to make good choices when it comes to food as well? We won’t be able to dictate our kids’ plates forever; the best way to ensure lifelong healthy eating habits is to teach them how to eat.

More importantly, though, parents need to model good behavior when it comes to sugar. Children are always watching and modeling what their parents are doing.

Ultimately, there isn’t a “correct” amount of sugar to let them have. It is something we want to avoid long-term exposure to, but like any Catch-22, we cannot completely avoid it.

Halloween is one of those times to let the kids have fun, eat some candy — and explain why the rest is going away.

Susan Peirce Thompson is the New York Times best-selling author of “Bright Line Eating: The Science of Living Happy, Thin, and Free.” An adjunct associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, she is also president of the Institute for Sustainable Weight Loss and CEO of Bright Line Eating Solutions, a company dedicated to sharing the psychology and neuroscience of sustainable weight loss.