Tactics to Avoid the Trick and Enjoy the Treat

Written by: Cassie Vanderwall

Halloween can be a scary time for more reasons than the goblins and spooky ghosts. Halloween seems to kick-off the season of treats. Many parents dread Halloween due to the amount of candy that their child drags home after a long night of trick-or-treating.  This can be unwelcomed, especially if any member of the family is attempting to manage their weight.  Let’s take a moment and spin this into a learning opportunity.

Trick-or-treating is a great time to teach kids about moderation. Remember, Halloween candy is no different than other sweets and desserts.  There is a growing body of research that encourages families to mark no food as forbidden. Ellyn Satter encourages parents to help their children to, “Learn to manage sweets and to keep sweets in proportion to the other food [they] eat.” Moderation can be a difficult concept to grasp, but it is a lesson worth learning. According to research, treat-deprived children often end up weighing more later in life due to hoarding forbidden foods, where as children who are permitted to enjoy treats regularly maintained a healthier weight. Additionally, authoritative food policies often encourage sneaking and hiding behaviors.

Brave parents may allow their children to manage their own stash of Halloween candy and possibly learn the hard way after a few belly aches. Other families may wish to combine the booty and sort through it together; allowing each member to identify the candies that they “love,” “like,” and can “do without.” Most people find it beneficial to throw out the candy that they can live without and enjoy the rest 1 piece at a time as part of a meal.

It is helpful to refer to published guidelines regarding added sugar to identify a healthy way to enjoy candy. Currently, the American Heart Association recommends a certain number of grams of sugar per day based on their age and gender. For reference, there are 4 grams of sugar in every teaspoon of sugar.

• Men: 36 grams per day (9 teaspoons)
• Women: 25 grams per day (6 teaspoons)
• Pre-teen and Teenagers: 20-32 grams per day (5-8 teaspoons)
• Children (4-8 years): (3 teaspoons)
• Preschoolers (2-3 years): 16 grams per day (4 teaspoons)

In order to do your part and limit the extra sugar that enters your home, choose to hand-out the following candy alternatives:

Non-Food Alternatives:

• Stickers
• Glow sticks
• Play dough
• Rings
• Toothpaste/Floss/Toothbrush
• Pencil/Erasers
• Post-it’s
• Bubbles

Food Alternatives:

• Sugar-free Gum
• Granola Bars
• Pretzels
• Crackers
• Trail mix

So, with moderation in mind may, the force be with you as we forge into the season of sweets!

“Rethink your Drink”

 Written by: Cassie Vanderwall

A pillar of health is good hydration. Water is essential for life and is used to keep joints healthy, maintain the body’s temperature and blood pressure, and remove waste products. Therefore, a lack of water can lead to dehydration, a deficiency in fluid, which can have dire consequences. Dehydration can be caused by loss of water through sweating, warm temperatures, increased urination or bowel movements, breathing, fever and physical activity.

Signs and symptoms of dehydration include:

• Dark urine that looks like apple juice,
• Dry mouth, eyes, nose, or skin,
• Sleepiness, and
• Thirst.

Try not to wait for these symptoms because often times they are hard to recognize. Drink up early and often!

In the era of “drinkcessorization” it is vital to look past the bright colors and sweet flavors of the beverage options today. Sugar-sweetened beverages, or SSB’s as we call them in the “biz” are called out as a culprit for the obesity epidemic inAmerica. In fact, many professional organizations including the American Cancer Society has encouraged the surgeon general to study the implications of these beverages. I agree that it warrants a closer look since American’s intake of SSB’s have doubled since the 1970’s.

So, why are we “hating on” these types of drinks?

5 reasons:

1. They do not provide satiety or fullness upon consumption
2. They do not cause a compensatory reduction in calorie intake at or between meals
3. They provide a heavy dose of sugar with about 36g sugar or 9 tsp per 12oz can soda-pop
4. The primary sweetener, high fructose corn syrup, has been known to increase inflammation, insulin resistance and impaired Beta cell function (check out my blog on Fructose: Poison or Pleasure).
5. SSB’s increase our sweet threshold and desire for sweets.

Since hydration is necessary, it is best to choose drinks that are low in fat, sugar, caffeine and calories.

Use the chart below to see how 1 cup of your favorite drinks measure up.

Drink	Calories	Fat (grams)	Sugar (grams)	Sugar (tsp)	Nutrition Facts
Water	0	0	0	0	#1 Thirst Quencher
Milk, Skim	80	0	12	0	Good source of Protein, Calcium, Vitamin D and Vitamin B12. Aim for 3 servings of calcium-rich foods everyday!
Milk, 1%	100	2.5	12	0
Milk, 1% Chocolate	160	2.5	25	3
Milk, 2%	120	5	12	0
Milk, Whole	150	8	12	0
Rice Milk, Plain	115	2	12	0
Soy Milk, Plain	100	4	6	0
Soy Milk, Chocolate	150	4	19	5
Sweet Tea	75	0	18	4 ½
Sports Drink	60	0	13	3
Orange Juice	120	0	21	5	The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends to limit juice to 1/2 Cup per day.
Apple Juice	110	0	24	6
Grape Juice	150	0	36	9
Fruit-Flavored Drink	120	0	28	7
Cola	90	0	22	5 ½	No Nutritional Value
Diet Soda Pop	0	0	0	0

Remember the numbers listed above are for only 1 cup of these beverages. At most fast food places the small beverage is 16oz. This would bump up the teaspoons per serving to 10 to 18 for juices, 9 for sweetened iced teas and 11 for regular colas.

In my recent interview on NBC-15 Madison, I encouraged viewers to “rethink their drinks” by:

• Make water #1 thirst quencher by keeping it ready and available.
• Add flavor to water by infusing-fruit (see recipe below). There are even pitchers now to help you add flavor without extra sugar.
• Hydrate with an assortment of other sugar-free beverages, including herbal tea, sodium-free seltzer waters, fat-free milk or another low sugar dairy alternative.
• Eat your water by striving for 5 to 9 servings of fruits and veggies everyday.
• Retrain our thoughts about juice and freeze it as popsicles for dessert!

Recipe: “Spa Water”

½ Cucumber, peeled, sliced
1 knuckle Ginger, peeled, sliced
½ cup mint leaves or 2 mint tea bags steeped
1 lemon, juiced
1 gallon filtered water