A pillowcase full of halloween candy can bring joy to your children’s eyes, but to you, this candy means that you and your child’s health is at stake. If your kids (or you) haven’t already devoured all of the halloween candy, consider some of the following tips for extending the shelf life of your candy or getting rid of it all together.
- Get to know the Switch Witch. Just like the Tooth Fairy, the Switch Witch comes at night and trades candy for toys. Sometimes the more candy a child leaves by the foot of his/her bed, the better the switch! The Switch Witch is also happy to come any night the week after Halloween, so it’s never too late.
- Freeze it. if you can’t stand to waste any piece of candy, but you don’t want to find yourself or your kids binging on sugar, put all of it in the freezer. This not only keeps your candy from going bad, but it makes it much more difficult to eat, which may influence you to keep the servings to a minimum.
- Set ground rules. Considering that mini candies range anywhere from 35 – 100 calories a piece, make it a rule that everyone is only allowed two pieces a day. This way, you’ll be sure to keep your added sugar intake at 200 calories or less, staying within the guidelines for 150-200 discretionary calories a day.
- Share the sugar. Bring extra candy to the office, donate it, give it to the doorman, or leave a goody bag for the mailman. You are bound to find someone else who would love to eat it!
- Bake or experiment with it. Instead of adding sugar to your next batch of cookies or brownies, add chopped up or melted candy bars instead. Even better, try some fun experiments that take the focus off of simply eating candy.
