My favorite healthy Halloween candy alternatives

The holiday season from Halloween on can test the healthy eating habits of even the most determined of us! It’s the time of year when health bloggers are telling you to swap sweet candy for green apples and we all nod along enthusiastically until we actually find ourselves in the grocery store, faced with aisle upon aisle of our favorite chocolate bars, now made even more tempting by being so small, cute, and fun-sized!

There are some important reasons to not go over-the-top when it comes to sugar – mismanaged blood sugar levels are a root cause of hormonal health issues like PCOS, PMS, painful periods, and infertility issues. But I know that depriving yourself completely isn’t a realistic approach at this time of year, instead it should be about balance.

So, I’m not here to tell you you can’t indulge in your favorite sugary Halloween treat. It’s a wonderful thing when you’ve been taking care of your hormones with your diet studiously for some time to take a moment to really, truly savor some candy. I get it – when I was a kid I would swap all of my Halloween candies for my friends’ KitKat bars. I looooved those KitKat bars like nothing else. And I do still sometimes sit down and indulge in my favorite chocolate bar – I just find now that I want my sweet fix to be as healthful as possible.

Halloween candy and your kids

Speaking of kids – now that I have my baby girl, how to approach Halloween in a way that’s best for my family is definitely on my mind. Not long now and she’ll be off trick-or-treating with her friends and bringing back bags full of candy, just like I did.

While your child is still under your care, that is, she/he is still at the age when they’ll take your advice and listen to what you think is best, then try to instill in them a sense of the value of real food. Wean them off the regular candies with my favorite alternatives and soon enough they’ll like them more. At least that is what they can find at home, even if at school it might be a different story! They’ll learn the difference and then they can have that educational foundation as they grow up to make their own choices.

This Halloween, if your kids come home with bags of regular, processed, junk candy – consider doing a swap with them for my healthier alternatives. Then consider donating the candy they were given. Operation Gratitude sends care packages to troops overseas, including all the treats they may have not seen for months or years. It’s a good way to get rid of at least some of that Halloween haul and teach your kids the importance of sharing at the same time.

I know it would be super expensive to hand out my healthy candy alternatives to all the neighborhood kids (if you do still get trick-or-treaters at your door on Halloween night…), so let’s hope some day these companies can compete on their pricing with the big brands and we can all share hormone-friendly treats with our neighbors and friends.

My favorite healthy Halloween candy alternatives

I think the best way to sail through the holiday season from Halloween on, candy-wise, is a 2 step process –

1) Don’t stress about the occasional indulgence with your favorite regular treats

and

2) Plan ahead to satisfy your cravings with healthy candy alternatives that you can enjoy just as much (no green apples, I promise!).

Most of these healthy candies can be found at your local WholeFoods or health food store. Buying online can also help you save. Oh, and if anyone finds a company that makes healthy version of my favorite KitKat bars, please let me know! I’m still on the look out for that one.

1. Justin’s natural candies – everything from lollipops to gummies to candy bars are here. They even have natural candy corn, pumpkin lollipops, black and orange natural food coloring, and a trick-or-treat mixed bag!
   
2. Sun cups – I’d say Reese’s peanut butter cups were my second favorite treat as a kid, after KitKats. Now I love these dark chocolate and sunbutter cups! They’re just as delicious.
   
3. Sunspire – M&Ms are everywhere this time of year with all the special flavors and colors. Sunspire does a healthy alternative for both milk chocolate and peanut butter M&Ms called SunDrops. You’ll never look back!
4. The Lovely Candy Company – is just that, lovely! It brings us fruit chews, caramels, and licorice, all without all the processed junk.
5. Ocho candy bars – Ocho does the perfect alternative to an Almond Joy bar. It’s incredible how close it is to the real thing. For Halloween, they also helpfully provide pouches of mini versions of all of their bars.
6. Endangered Species chocolate mini bars – these are the perfect fun size for Halloween and they are flavored cranberry or mint for the holiday season, if you’re thinking ahead to what you might save for Christmas stockings!

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you!  You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

to your FLO,

Alisa

Good things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you struggle with sugar cravings?

Second, what are your favorite healthy alternatives?

Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social 😉

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