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Is Giving Out Candy on Halloween Adding to the Obesity Problem?

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Replies

  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    The average calories in a fun size candy bar looks to be about 80. The average number of houses a kid hits up for candy on Halloween looks to be slightly less than 50.

    So the kid’s total calorie take on Halloween (assuming no houses are giving out squid) is 4000.

    Subtract out however many calories said kid burns by waking to those 50 houses while wearing a costume and carrying this bag of candy (and squid).

    So...massive impact to obesity (making the very false assumption that the parents eat none of the candy and the kid actually remembers he to she has the candy and eats it all) is about...1 pound.

    THIS MUST BE STOPPED NOW!

    Where are you getting those numbers? I can't have been the only house last year to give out multiple pieces of candy per kid. I gave 4 plus 2 toys. Those bags were full of treats. There is no way that was only a pound of candy.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,975 Member
    Fiber bars? Squid? Please. I vote for giving out kids apple cider vinegar on Halloween. It'll rot their teeth like candy, but at least it will reboot their metabolisms. Um, right? :o

    Given what my friends have told me about the effect of fast sugar on their children**, I think it's likely that the candy reboots their little metabolisms just fine, without resorting to cruel and unusual ACV.

    ** Relying on anecdotal evidence, as I have no offspring of my own.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,224 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    The average calories in a fun size candy bar looks to be about 80. The average number of houses a kid hits up for candy on Halloween looks to be slightly less than 50.

    So the kid’s total calorie take on Halloween (assuming no houses are giving out squid) is 4000.

    Subtract out however many calories said kid burns by waking to those 50 houses while wearing a costume and carrying this bag of candy (and squid).

    So...massive impact to obesity (making the very false assumption that the parents eat none of the candy and the kid actually remembers he to she has the candy and eats it all) is about...1 pound.

    THIS MUST BE STOPPED NOW!

    Where are you getting those numbers? I can't have been the only house last year to give out multiple pieces of candy per kid. I gave 4 plus 2 toys. Those bags were full of treats. There is no way that was only a pound of candy.

    I got those from the mighty google machine. The calories per fun size candy bar ranged from 30-110 with most being 70-80.

    And 50 candy bars is more than a pound.

    Where I live-the kids take one. I don’t count what’s in their bags.

  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    edited October 2019
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Fiber bars? Squid? Please. I vote for giving out kids apple cider vinegar on Halloween. It'll rot their teeth like candy, but at least it will reboot their metabolisms. Um, right? :o

    Given what my friends have told me about the effect of fast sugar on their children**, I think it's likely that the candy reboots their little metabolisms just fine, without resorting to cruel and unusual ACV.

    ** Relying on anecdotal evidence, as I have no offspring of my own.

    It is not their metabolism it is their NEAT. Bouncing off walls and dancing to the same children's song they have played repeatedly for 4 hours burns a lot of calories.
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    To respond to the initial question, no I don't think passing out candy on Halloween adds to the obesity problem. It's one day out of the year. It's tradition. It's fun.

    Personally, unless I knew you, I wouldn't let my child take soup from you. It would be really easy for an evil person to add chemicals to soup. 😞
  • nytrifisoul
    nytrifisoul Posts: 500 Member
    All this sugar and you are concerned about gaining weight? Why is nobody concerned about these poor kids teeth? !!!
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    LyndaBSS wrote: »
    To respond to the initial question, no I don't think passing out candy on Halloween adds to the obesity problem. It's one day out of the year. It's tradition. It's fun.

    Personally, unless I knew you, I wouldn't let my child take soup from you. It would be really easy for an evil person to add chemicals to soup. 😞

    How do you determine that the people you know are not evil?

    If you want to be concerned about cross contamination from poor kitchen habits you might have a point. However, given the huge number of potlucks that happen each year that do not end in visits to the hospital even that is unlikely. No kid would ever get sick from anything in my kitchen unless it was a batch of contaminated (e.coli) vegetables that had not been recalled yet or an allergy. I am quite fastidious.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,975 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Fiber bars? Squid? Please. I vote for giving out kids apple cider vinegar on Halloween. It'll rot their teeth like candy, but at least it will reboot their metabolisms. Um, right? :o

    Given what my friends have told me about the effect of fast sugar on their children**, I think it's likely that the candy reboots their little metabolisms just fine, without resorting to cruel and unusual ACV.

    ** Relying on anecdotal evidence, as I have no offspring of my own.

    It is not their metabolism it is their NEAT. Bouncing off walls and dancing to the same kids song they have played repeatedly for 4 hours burns a lot of calories.

    :lol::lol::lol:

    Got me back for that fat/lean loss thing, eh?

    :flowerforyou:

    ( ;) )
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Fiber bars? Squid? Please. I vote for giving out kids apple cider vinegar on Halloween. It'll rot their teeth like candy, but at least it will reboot their metabolisms. Um, right? :o

    Given what my friends have told me about the effect of fast sugar on their children**, I think it's likely that the candy reboots their little metabolisms just fine, without resorting to cruel and unusual ACV.

    ** Relying on anecdotal evidence, as I have no offspring of my own.

    It is not their metabolism it is their NEAT. Bouncing off walls and dancing to the same kids song they have played repeatedly for 4 hours burns a lot of calories.

    :lol::lol::lol:

    Got me back for that fat/lean loss thing, eh?

    :flowerforyou:

    ( ;) )

    Would I do that?
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    earlnabby wrote: »
    I miss the popcorn balls one of my neighbors gave out. Not sure what recipe she used but I have never been able to duplicate them.

    I Trick or Treated before the unfounded paranoia started about home made goodies. We were happy to get popcorn balls or bags of cookies because we had some great cooks in our town, The couple of houses that gave out full size candy bars were still the best.

    Me too. I also think if someone was going to poison kids it would have been in my day when we were always outside making noise and walking on neighbors' lawns and stuff. I lived here over a year before I realized one of my surrounding neighbors had kids and that was because I saw them walking to a car.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    earlnabby wrote: »
    I miss the popcorn balls one of my neighbors gave out. Not sure what recipe she used but I have never been able to duplicate them.

    I Trick or Treated before the unfounded paranoia started about home made goodies. We were happy to get popcorn balls or bags of cookies because we had some great cooks in our town, The couple of houses that gave out full size candy bars were still the best.

    I remember those! They were awesome! Had a neighbour who made caramel apples every year. That was the only piece of fruit I didn't mind getting. <3
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,310 Member
    We don't get much trick or treaters.. so not issue for us in my neighborhood. 😁


  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    Even if you were to give out soup, I still question how you would package it as to make sure it won't spill in the kids' bags, especially if those children are running. It's also simply unrealistic to assume that a kid (and their parent) will want to sit and eat soup at someone's house. That said, for all I know you were planning on using those awesome durable plastic restaurant containers that are fairly watertight and then putting that in a plastic bag (becuase again with running children) ;)

    Never mind that you have no idea how active the children actually are. It isn't exactly unusual for parents to be shuttling their kids around to sports practices.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    aokoye wrote: »
    Even if you were to give out soup, I still question how you would package it as to make sure it won't spill in the kids' bags, especially if those children are running. It's also simply unrealistic to assume that a kid (and their parent) will want to sit and eat soup at someone's house. That said, for all I know you were planning on using those awesome durable plastic restaurant containers that are fairly watertight and then putting that in a plastic bag (becuase again with running children) ;)

    Never mind that you have no idea how active the children actually are. It isn't exactly unusual for parents to be shuttling their kids around to sports practices.

    I do have those containers and the pint size version from another vendor. They are my preferred storage container.