How Is That Halloween Candy Working For You?
“Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!” Like many of you, I have already purchased my Halloween candy in order to ‘be prepared’ and promptly ate half of it! What is all that sugar doing to my body? Wreaking havoc on my heart, hips, and blood vessel that’s what!
When I eat sugar from yummy chocolate candy covered in caramel, peanut butter or coconut topping, my pancreas puts out insulin to help push that sugar into cells for energy. If it can’t be used, then it is stored as fat. The empty calories go straight to my belly and the saturated fat into my liver increasing my cholesterol.
Knowing this I still can not resist temptation.
The excess sugar can lead to pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and/or diabetes. It creates many unwanted pounds around the mid-section, endocrine/hormone problems, skin changes, and numbness/tingling in your toes or fingers.
The additional fat and calories raises your blood pressure, your waist line (again), and your cholesterol. This then increases your heart disease and stroke risk and creates unnecessary inflammation in your body that can lead to joint pain, muscle pain, and headaches.
Able to resist yet?
Add A New CommentWe value and respect the experiences of all of our HerWriters, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.
Add A New Comment3 Comments
Dr. Jones,
Thank you for this ammunition!! But long ago I have to say that I had to just buy candy I don't like for Halloween. The bags of 100 "bite-size" chocolate bars, etc, are just too much to resist -- it's too easy to convince myself that "just one won't matter!" And, well, you know how quickly the "just one" turns into "just a dozen."
I also try to see Halloween as the beginning of the holiday season. Because Nov. 1, everyone brings their leftover Halloween candy to the office (including me), and there begins the long, slow slide toward Thanksgiving, holiday cookies, parties and too-much-pie. You find fudge here, nut bread there and peppermint everywhere. My old office even added motivation to be bad -- we "bought" the items on the treat table with donations, and then all the money went to charity. What could be better? Eating sugar for a good cause!! It was delicious and horrible all at the same time.
Thanks for this timely reminder. Maybe we can tiptoe by the graveyard on this one.
How is that hallowe'en candy working for me?
Very well, thank you!
Those peanut butter cups....those Almond Joys! Mmmmmm! Works VERY well!
Actually, we learned from past mistakes by not buying candy early in order to be "organized" since all that meant was we had extra time to eat it all. So we bought it last week. And wouldn't you know I bloody well opened it! But I have only eaten a few pieces so I'm not too worked up about it and we will do what we always do the Monday following Hallowe'en - send all the candy into my husband's work for his coworkers to do with as they please.
Our kids will be allowed to keep about one third of their candy and the rest will be sent to his work. And honestly, we never keep candy at home, nor cookies so they forget about the candy very quickly and don't really care if it's sent away as long as they get to keep some of it and enjoy it in rations. We keep it very healthy (and fully vegetarian) at home so treats at special holiday times are encouraged because they are just that - treats, and it's special to them. I think every kid should be able to pig out a little on Hallowe'en without feeling bad or without parents going overboard with the nonstop healthy talk!
Thanks for your share and your tips - love them!
Ha, ha! I definitely needed to read a funny (yet informative!) post that I could very easily relate to. I made the mistake of buying my Halloween candy 2 weeks before Halloween last year. I packed goody bags but still had lots of left overs. Needless to say, I ate too much candy. This year, I have restrained myself from even buying the candy until the day before or the day of. I'm not going through this candy binging experience this year! (Maybe)