Having a healthy Halloween doesn't mean giving up candy and other sweets, it just means learning to choose healthier alternatives. Learning how to pick smarter snacking options not only allows you to still take part in the fun Halloween festivities, but also keeps you feeling good about making healthier eating decisions. Here are some healthy snacking tips and the best choices for Halloween treats.
Healthy Halloween Snacking Tips
Follow these tips and still enjoy a few Halloween goodies:
- Choose dark chocolate over milk chocolate for its antioxidant properties.
- Choose sugar free gum, fruit chews or lollipops as smarter alternatives to candy.
- Pick the small or mini sized candy bars over the larger ones.
- Choose a chocolate bar that is simple. For instance avoid ones that contain nuts, caramel or peanut butter as these tend to pack on extra calories and fat. A better choice would be a 3 Musketeers bar with light and airy chocolate.
- Be sure to eat three healthy meals (or mini-meals) throughout the day to ward off hunger and decrease the urge to binge on sweets.
- Don't fall victim to temptation. Put the kids' candy out of sight to ward off the urge to indulge.
- Buy the candy you won't be tempted to eat. When choosing candy to pass out to trick or treaters, buy the kind that you know you don't like. It's simple: if you don't like it, you won't eat it.
- Keep some healthy snacking options close at hand. And don't confuse healthy with tasteless. Some smart treats include gummy candies, fat free chocolate pudding parfait and popcorn.
- Tweak your favorite treat. Make a healthier version of your favorite snack. Plenty of recipes are available online that makeover a bad snack into a much healthier one and tastes just as good.
- Make a special Halloween treat for yourself like Hungry Girl's easy salty and sweet snack: simply mix a mini bag of microwave fat free popcorn with a fun size package of M&M's. Other guiltless Halloween snack ideas can be found at Hungry Girl's website.
Best Bests for Halloween Treats
Based on calorie and fat content, Hungry Girl compiled a handy list of the smartest Halloween snacking choices. The winners included: Twizzlers, Smarties, Dum Dum pops, Blow Pops, and mini Airheads.The smartest chocolate choices included: Mini Milky Way, Mini 3 Musketeers, and Tootsie Roll Midgets. Note that these are the mini size and not the fun size. Other good snacking choices include caramel apples, candy corn and popcorn (just be sure to keep the butter and salt to a minimum). Specific nutritional information can be found on Hungry Girl's website.
This Halloween can be fun and healthy, just remember to plan ahead to ward off any temptation and be conscious of your snack choices.
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