How To Recover From Too Much Sugar After A Holloween Candy Binge
Let’s face it! Who doesn’t get excited about Holloween? It’s that time of the year when Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory are probably busiest and grocery stores fill their shelves with candies, chocolates, and other sugar-loaded Halloween treats with Americans spending for nearly 600 million pounds of candies each year for Holloween.
Celebrated every October 31, kids and even adults, look forward to the thrill of getting on their silly and sometimes scary costumes and creative make-up as they go trick-or-treating with their friends from one house to another. After a fun trick-or-treating time, they all go home even more excited to find out how much sweet treats they have in their goodie bags … and so the sugar spree begins.
While a small amount of Holloween sweets is not going to break your child’s weight or your dental bill instantly, his trick-or-treat adventure may bring a week’s worth of candy bars, if not more. During this sugarloaded time of the year, the average child consumes about three cups of sugar or 144 teaspoons of sugar. Now that’s a lot of sugar!
You cannot control what your kids will get from trick-or-treating, some candies contain tons of sugar more than other candies. Check their goodie bags and choose those which contain less sugar like dark chocolates, which are also a good source of antioxidants. Protein in nutty bars delay the absorption of the chocolate bars, while yummy peanut butter cups, at least, have peanut butter. Lollipops take a while to consume and distract your kids from munching on other candies and chocolate bars.
Although it happens just once a year, heavy consumption of sugar is still bad for your kids’ health. And while you don’t want your kids to miss this fun day, these helpful tips on how to recover from a sugar hangover may be worth remembering before you let your kids dive into the most sugar-loaded holiday of the year.
Don’t let your kids consume all his treats in one sitting. Let him enjoy his treats, but make sure to save some for other days.
Drink plenty of water. Make sure to flush out those excess sugar out of his system by drinking more water while indulging in his treats. And don’t give them just any water; give them clean and healthy filtered water. If you still don’t have a home filtration system, invest in a reliable brand like SJ Wave.
Remind your kid to brush his teeth. Make sure to clean his palate to rid of excess sugar traces in his teeth and oral cavities. The taste of fluoride will also stop his appetite for more chocolate.
Exercise. Let them burn those unwanted extra calories by going for a bike, running or just walking. Moving around will help them burn energy faster and ask for more water. And more water means more sugar getting flushed out their system. So make sure you have your water bottle filled with filtered water all day.
Load up on protein and fiber. Restrict your kids’ craving for more sugar intake for a few days to let his taste buds adjust to less-sweet foods by giving them more protein and fiber-rich foods. These foods will keep them feeling full and prevent them from reaching another bar of candy or chocolate.
Choose a light breakfast. Combat that morning-after-a-sugar-rush with alight and healthy breakfast. This will encourage your kid’s body to burn some more of yesterday’s stored sugar for energy. Poached eggs with a slice of toast with peanut butter and banana will still let them enjoy a hearty breakfast with less guilt.
Helping your kids recover from a sugar hangover can be challenging especially for younger ones, but these tricks will make it even faster an easier for you to get them back in equilibrium; because much as you would like to take away all those stash of candies and chocolate bars, it might be easier said than done. You might find yourself struggling with how to convince them and even break their hearts. So how about playing a little Tricks-for-Treats to keep your kids from chomping all those sugary treats?
Trick them with a “buy back” scheme. Let your kids choose a few of his favorite treats and buy the rest in exchange for a special treat like a toy, book or extended play time. This proven win-win situation allows you to limit their sugar binge while still letting them enjoy their favorite Holloween treats.
Pair it up. When your child asks for a bar, pair it with something healthy like banana, apple or nuts. And don’t forget to give them a glass of filtered water to flush out those excess sugar.
Avoid over eating by putting all the Holloween treats in the kitchen bar instead of in front of the TV and at the dining table. This way, they get to eat healthy meals and prevent them from snacking on their treats while watching TV. It will also discourage them from exerting effort in going to the kitchen bar just for a bar or two of candies.
Holloween happens once a year; and you don’t want your kids to miss the thrill and excitement of this event. Holloween is more than just trick-or-treating, there are so much more you can do together as a family to make this holiday an even more memorable and fun one. Decorate your house and pick the best pumpkin for your jack-o-lantern to highlight your lawn; DIY your child’s costume together; and most of all, prepare healthy treats and goodies for your Holloween visitors like oat bars, dark chocolate-coated dried fruits and nuts and the like.
