Halloween doesn't have to be a sugar orgy. There are dozens of healthy choices for those of us who are shopping for halloween treats. You will not find healthy choices in the huge piles of candy in your supermarket or drug store. The usual candy treats are filled with sugar and, even worse, with high-fructose corn syrup. Probably your best source of healthy halloween treats is your local health-food store.
Several websites present some outstanding ideas for treats. Green Halloween has dozens of creative suggestions. Have you thought of giving small polished rocks as gifts? There's no rule that the halloween treats have to be edible! Kids love things from nature. Foreign coins bought in bulk are economical and will stimulate the children's curiousity.
My personal favorite is a series of hard candies from College Farm. These candies are inexpensive and individually wrapped lozenges of fair-trade organic materials. They are as sweet as any commercial candy, but are organic, Kosher, GMO-free, etc.
Small companies are making healthy fair-trade replacements for many of our familiar sugary treats. PureFun makes candy that looks exactly like common hard candy treats like the red and white peppermint lozenges, but they are made with organic ingredients including fruits like pomegranite with antioxidants. The kids won't even know they're eating something healthy. Global Exchange is another company making healthy, look-alike replacements.
The ingredients to look out for in candies that you want to avoid would be a very long list. The main things to avoid are high-fructose corn syrup and sugar-free products containing aspartame. These are pervasive chemicals that have no business in a child's body, or an adults body for that matter. Artificial coloring and flavoring is generally bad. Remember that milk chocolate is poor quality chocolate with too much fat and sugar without the health benefits of dark chocolate.
