1. Artificial Dyes: These are used in M&M’s and other candies and have been linked to ADHD in children. These dyes are petroleum based and multiple countries have already banned them!
2. Palm Oil: This is found is many different candies like Snickers, Twix, Twizzlers and more! Consuming palm oil is endangering orangutans because of the deforestation caused by harvesting the palm oil. Palm oil is common in packaged foods and is extremely unhealthy. It also has a very big impact on the rain forests and the population of the orangutans that live where the palm oil can be found.
3. Excessive Calories: Children go door to door, street to street and neighbourhood to neighbourhood. They bring big bags to collect candies and usually end up coming home with more then two bags full! There are a lot of empty calories in each piece of candy that can lead to obesity, diabetes, and many other health issues!
4. More Than 10 Ingredients: Chocolate and candies such as: Whoppers, Skittles, Milky Way, Nerds, Butterfingers and Kit Kats all have a grocery list of more then 15 ingredients in one little candy/chocolate! They have all types of sugars such as emulsifiers, artificial dyes and other chemical components inside of them, making them quite harmful to our health.
5. TBHQ: This is a preservative chemically related to butane (also knows as lighter fluid). It is a lethal in quantities over five grams! The FDA has approved it in the chocolate, as long as it makes up less than 0.02% of the food’s fat or oil content. This is definitely not something you should be putting in your body, especially giving it to children!
6. Castroeum: Vanilla, strawberry and raspberry flavorings in processed candies are made with Castroeum. Castroeum is an extract made from the castor sacs in Beavers. The FDA has said that Castroeum is generally regarded as “safe” and even manufacturers are listing this ingredient as “natural flavouring”. You wouldn’t know you are eating it unless you have done your research!
Healthy Halloween Candy Alternatives
1. Trail Mix: You can mix Enjoy Life chocolate chips with unsweetened coconut flakes, raw almonds, raw cashews, and more! The mix is endless and it provides a healthy dose of protein, fat, and fibre.
2. Cookies N Creme Yogurt: Crumble a small handful of GoGo Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies on top of Yoso Coconut Yogurt and voila! You’ve got yourself a healthy treat!
3. Fruit Kabobs: Make fruit kabobs with you children and drizzle it with raw dark chocolate for a delicious, refined sugar free treat!
4. Dried Fruit: This is a great replacement for Halloween candy, just make sure you buy organic, unsulphured dried fruit!
5.Make Your Own Dehydrated Fruit Leather: It’s simple, use any fruit to recreate Fruit Roll-Ups into a healthy and satisfying treat!
6. Make Fun Fruit:
Tangerine pumpkins (with celery as the stem) = pumpkin
Bananas with chocolate chips for eyes/mouth = ghost
Chocolate Companies we Love:
FOR lots of delicious chocolate
• Giddy Yoyo
• Sunbiotics (use code TUHP at checkout)
• Theobroma chocolate (Not the same as “Theo”)
• Endangered Species Chocolate Co.
• Sweets From The Earth
• Raw Chocolate Buddha Cups
• Live On Chocolate
• Camino
Candy Alternative Companies:
– Surf Sweets Organic Jelly Beans, Gummy Worms, Lollipops
– GoGo Quinoa Cookies
– Two Moms In The Raw Bars (use code TUHP)
