Tricks for a Healthy Halloween - Now That's a Treat!

Whether you celebrate with your little ones or with friends and coworkers, Halloween hauls don't have to ruin your health.  Here are my tips to help you enjoy the celebration without spinning off track.

For little ones going trick-or-treating:

1) Limit the number of houses you hit trick-or-treating.  Decide how you want to do this beforehand, and make sure the kids know the plan.
Make it fun:
- Choose houses with the best decorations and unique jack-o-lanterns.  See if you can take pictures of the decorations, and make sure to compliment the homeowner's decorations when you reach the door.  This takes the emphasis off just getting candy.
- If you're trick-or-treating in a group of 4 or more (e.g. 2 parents/chaperones and 2 children), split into teams and choose one street or block per team.  See who can finish their route first.  The winning team gets first pick of an extra (healthy) treat or item, such as sheets of stickers, temporary tattoos, or a small toy, from the chaperones.  When teams meet up again, they can trade up to 5 treats between them.

2) Let them choose a few pieces of candy to eat after trick-or-treating, then sort through the rest to either keep for another day or toss/give away.  Have them take out items they don't want, and set an upper limit (e.g. 5, 10, or 20 pieces) for the stuff they can keep.  If they tend to "toss" healthier items, like mini-boxes of raisins, save them anyway, either for yourself or for their lunchboxes another day.
Bonus: The "Switch Witch" is a neat idea to get rid of excess candy without your kids feeling deprived of their hard-earned haul.  Like the Tooth Fairy, the Switch Witch leaves something behind - crayons, bubbles, silly bandz, etc. - in exchange for the candy.

For trick-or-treaters visiting your house:

3) Choose "healthier" treat options.  Examples:
- Mini-boxes of raisins such as PC Organics (they come 14 boxes to a bag)
- Mini-bags of organic popcorn or non-GMO verified chips
- Organic chocolates such as Camino or Barkley's (you may find these in the bulk section or checkout counters at some health food stores)
- Organic lollipops such as Yum Earth
- Individual packets of SaviSeeds
- Non-GMO verified snack bars like Enjoy Life (also top-allergen-free) or Nature's Path
- Individually-wrapped ginger candies
Get creative and see what healthy options are available in your area.

4) Give out non-food treat alternatives.  Examples:
- Stickers
- Temporary tattoos
- Bubbles
- Halloween novelty items (e.g. spider rings, bouncing eyeballs, etc.)
- Pencils and erasers
- Crayons
- Play-Doh
- Small toys (e.g. army men, dinosaurs, zoo animals, Lego pieces, etc.)
- City of Ottawa swim/skate coupons
Again, get creative and see what you can find!

For health-conscious adults:

5) If you're tempted to dig in to your kids' leftover/unwanted candy, or more importantly, tempted to binge on that candy, bring it with you to work to share with coworkers, donate it to a Food Bank, or just throw it away.

6) If you're hosting or attending a Halloween party, and want to make something fun but not unhealthy, look for healthy Halloween ideas on sites like Pinterest.  Some good ones: pumpkin-shaped energy balls, "frog eggs & eyeballs" (coconut green tea chia pudding with lychees), veggies arranged into skeletons or jack-o-lanterns, etc.  Check out my Playing with Food Pinterest board for these ideas and more!

7) Sugar overload can be hard to avoid during Halloween celebrations.  To help minimize the amount of white refined sugar you and your loved ones consume, make Halloween treats with healthier alternatives, such as organic coconut sugar, unsulphured blackstrap molasses, raw honey, dates or date paste, raisins, apple sauce, cinnamon, organic vanilla extract, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, or organic cane sugar.
Avoid artificial sweeteners like Equal, NutraSweet, Sugar Twin, Splenda, and Hermesetas.  These contain aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin, among other harmful chemicals.
For a no-calorie natural alternative, try a good-quality stevia powder or extract.  Be sure to read the ingredients, as not all stevia products are pure stevia and may contain fillers, even hidden GMOs.  The label should indicate rebaudiana, Reb-A, or stevia leaf powder/extract only.

For everyone:

8) Be informed.  Know what some of the food industry's buzzwords are and what they may mean.  "All natural", for example, is not regulated as a labeling term, and products boasting this claim may in fact contain GMOs, pesticides, and other hidden horrors (like the ambiguous "natural flavours").  Check out this list of potential GMO ingredients, and this list of GMO-containing brands and products.
As with everything else, when in doubt, go organic.

Remember to stay safe and have fun!  Happy Halloween!

Do you have healthy Halloween tricks to cope with all the treats?  Share them with me!

Disappearing Bees, Neonicotinoids, and How We Can Help

Around the world, news of mass bee die-offs is making headlines. In June, an estimated 50 000 bumble bees were found dead in Wilsonville, Oregon. Not much later, early in July, an estimated 37 000 000 bees were found dead in Elmwood, Ontario. These deaths have mainly been attributed to recent spraying of neonicotinoid pesticides on nearby trees and corn seeds, respectively.

According to the petition site Change.org, “Canada’s Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency has confirmed that last year’s widespread bee deaths in Ontario were caused by neonicotinoid pesticides.”

As the name would suggest, neonicotinoids are chemically related to nicotine, which is itself a known toxin. Neonicotinoids work by binding to and overstimulating cells in the insects’ central nervous systems. This leads to paralysis and death.

Unfortunately, it’s not just insects that are affected. In March, a review was published by the American Bird Conservancy that looked at 200 studies on insecticides and their impact on birds. They found that “neonicotinoids are lethal to birds and to the aquatic systems on which they depend”.

Neonicotinoids may be used on crops that include grains such as corn, rice and cereal, legumes, vegetables including potatoes, fruits such as apples and pears, cotton, and even as flea treatments for your pets.

So with such widespread use and contamination, what can we do to avoid neonicotinoids, and what can we do to help our bees?

1)       GO ORGANIC. Avoid foods potentially contaminated with neonicotinoids by choosing organic produce. If budget is a concern, refer to the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen lists. Another good rule of thumb: if it has skin you can eat, whether you peel it anyway or not, or you eat the leaves, buy it organic.

2)      Bee kind. We recently noticed a few bumblebees flying into and out of an opening in the awning above our front door. We wondered what we could do to relocate them without hurting them. In the case of bumblebees, I was surprised to learn that it may be best just to leave them alone, as they will usually abandon their nest in the fall, and trying to remove them may actually do more harm than good. As long as they are not agitated, they have no reason to sting. You can even build a nest in your garden if you’d like to give the bees a home away from your home. If you’ve got honeybees or wasps, though, you may need to call in the help of a beekeeper to remove them safely.

3)       Buy local. Go to your local Farmers’ Market and buy produce direct from smaller-scale farms. If the farmer doesn’t indicate “organic” on their produce, ask why. They may follow organic guidelines, but may not yet be able to afford the certification process to allow them to label their produce as organic. You can also become a member of a CSA delivery program to have fresh, local, in-season, and organic produce delivered to your door each week!

        You can also look for locally-produced honey at the Markets. Ask the beekeepers questions about the bees and how they collect and treat the honey. Some keepers will also provide handouts with this information.

4)      Boycott/Buycott. Be aware of the parent companies of common packaged foods and household products. In the case of neonicotinoids, many are produced by Bayer. You can also download an app to your smartphone that lets you enter a product and trace it back to its parent company to help you stick to your “buycott”.

5)       Plant flowers. Fill your garden with flowers that will attract bees. They need to eat, too! Avoid using commercial garden products like fertilizers and herb/pest/fungicide sprays.

6)      Bee vocal. Spread the word and help increase awareness of this issue. The European Union enacted a two-year ban in several countries, and Oregon has put a 180-day restriction on neonicotinoids. Petitions have arisen to enact similar bans closer to home. See the Petition link below to call for a ban here in Ontario!

Have any other ideas to help our bees? Leave them in the comments below!

Petition:

Change.org & The Ontario Beekeepers’ Association – Save Ontario’s bees: ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides

Sources:

More Than 25,000 Bees Found Dead In Oregon Parking Lot

Over 30 Million Bees Found Dead In Elmwood Canada

Neonicotinoid: Mode of action

Birds, Bees, and Aquatic Life Threatened by Gross Underestimate of Toxicity of World’s Most Widely Used Pesticide

The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds

Neonicotinoid: Usage

EWG’s 2013 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™

Bee Nest Removal and Bumblebee Nests

Buycott.com: Bayer Corporation

Consumer Pesticide Products Containing Neonicotinoids

European Union Votes To Ban Pesticides Linked to Bee Deaths

Big News For Bees! Oregon to Ban Pesticides After Latest Bee Die Off