Nutritious Treat, or Trick?

Halloween is absolutely my favorite holiday. As far as I am concerned, there are no other holidays, none that bear mentioning, anyway. I love Halloween, and from April through October I devote most of my spare time to dreaming up costumes that I can spend the rest of my spare time making. Steering my interests towards nutrition and healthy eating has precipitated a dilemma, however-what kind of treat can I hand out to kids that won't make me feel guilty or get thrown in the trash after the kids sort through the evening's take? In a perfect world, I could bake cookies or make chocolate truffles to hand out, but thanks to the razorblade/apple hoax of my youth and various people who actually do hideous and unmentionable things to small children, that is not an option. I need to find something pre-packaged. I'm not the only one facing this dilemma. Dentists have been known to hand out toothbrushes and sugar-free candy. I don't want to go that far, but I just can't feel good about promoting bad dietary habits.

When the groups of trick-or-treaters leave my house parents are usually happy, and kids are often disappointed. My treats may be tolerable enough to keep kids from throwing them away, but that's only because they can be used to trick less savvy trick-or-treaters into trading them for something else. In the past, I have given out pretzels, raisins, cheap Halloween-themed toys and pencils (not awful, but not that interesting, either). And last year I gave out Play-Doh, which gave me a good feeling. But as much as I want to feel justified in giving out something nutritious or creative on Halloween, I really just can't feel good about giving out boring, non-candy treats, because when you're a kid, dressing up is great, but Halloween is really all about the candy.

When I was still of prime trick-or-treating age, I got hijacked by what I like to refer to as the psycho-fundamentalist branch of a popular religion, which shall remain nameless, but they know who they are (and I suspect you do, too-please note that I refer to one particular sect, not the entire religion). Afterwards, I spent my Halloweens wandering around this group's official religious building with a few other kids dressed as popular characters from religious texts, and not roaming around the neighborhood in a great costume with my friends.

Despite the unilateral condemnation of Halloween and all that it stands for (or could potentially be construed to stand for), we still got candy. Even those guys gave out candy for Halloween, so how can I refuse?

The source of my dilemma is that Halloween is an extreme, high-calorie sugar and junk food orgy for kids. With childhood obesity and diabetes dramatically on the rise, this generation of kids is projected to have a shorter average life expectancy than their parents. This is a serious problem, and encouraging bingeing on high-calorie, low-nutrient food is perhaps inadvisable. The more I think about it, though, the more I think I may be missing the point here. Giving out boring treats on Halloween instead of candy is unlikely to have an impact on this epidemic. It is like trying to reduce the number of people with alcohol-related health problems by encouraging them to drink sparkling grape juice on New Year's Eve instead of champagne. Behavior that takes place on one night each year doesn't really matter. With good eating habits overall, one night of candy overload won't make much difference. For kids who already subsist on a steady diet of junk food and get little or no physical activity, it probably won't make much difference, either.

So it's settled. While I may still lean towards the less treacherous end of the Halloween treat spectrum (candy with ingredients other than pure corn syrup and food dye), I am moving farther towards the junk food end. I haven't made my final purchases yet, but I should have happier kids (and possibly some disappointed parents) leaving my house this Halloween.