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Is Giving Out Candy on Halloween Adding to the Obesity Problem?
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My friends' kids all have severe food allergies, so I tend to give out colored pencil sets, Play-Doh, silly putty, full sized coloring books, crayons, rubber stamps, keen hole punches (stars, foot prints, snow flakes, etc) and sketch books.
Weirdly, the Play Doh is very popular with the teenagers. I totally didn't see that one coming.
- Oh, and the fidget spinners the one year were incredibly popular. *eye roll*5 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »
No doubt. Where is the dressing?
No dressing, dude. Dressing has calories. <nods>
A light vinegar dressing would add practically nothing. Plus the kid might want relief from all the sweetness they have to endure.2 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »
No doubt. Where is the dressing?
No dressing, dude. Dressing has calories. <nods>
A light vinegar dressing would add practically nothing. Plus the kid might want relief from all the sweetness they have to endure.
Make it apple cider vinegar and you have the virtue-signalling bingo.5 -
ElizabethKalmbach wrote: »My friends' kids all have severe food allergies, so I tend to give out colored pencil sets, Play-Doh, silly putty, full sized coloring books, crayons, rubber stamps, keen hole punches (stars, foot prints, snow flakes, etc) and sketch books.
Weirdly, the Play Doh is very popular with the teenagers. I totally didn't see that one coming.
Interesting. Last year we gave out glow sticks and other assorted cheap crap. I looked at the playdoh as an option but figured the older kids would scoff at it.
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snickerscharlie wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »
No doubt. Where is the dressing?
No dressing, dude. Dressing has calories. <nods>
A light vinegar dressing would add practically nothing. Plus the kid might want relief from all the sweetness they have to endure.
Make it apple cider vinegar and you have the virtue-signalling bingo.
That would keep the costs down. Thanks.2 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »
No doubt. Where is the dressing?
No dressing, dude. Dressing has calories. <nods>
A light vinegar dressing would add practically nothing. Plus the kid might want relief from all the sweetness they have to endure.
Make it apple cider vinegar and you have the virtue-signalling bingo.
That would keep the costs down. Thanks.
The one with "the mother" is a bit more pricey, but likely still doable. And the payback in self-righteousness would be so worth it.5 -
I grew up in the 70s and early 80s...and rarely was there a fat kid. We played outside every chance we got. We ate at the dinner table with family and had home cooked meals. Seeing a fat kid now is sadly not rare at all. I used to eat all my candy from halloween...got sick to stomach a few times but never got fat.8
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When I was a kid, we used to get tons of fruit, especially apples and oranges.
Hated it because a) it was fruit, not candy and b) it took up waaaaay too much room in the bag and make it heavy as hell. Thankfully, the pins and razor blades thing put an end to that nonsense by the time my daughter was trick-or-treating.
There was one house that gave out full sized-chocolate bars every year. They were the best house on the block. Until they moved. I think the new owners got their house egged that first year.2 -
@NovusDies Yeah... I had the $.56 full sized cans and ran out early on. It was completely unexpected.
This year, I have a case of glue and tiny packs of borax/glitter.
SLIME KITS.
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ElizabethKalmbach wrote: »My friends' kids all have severe food allergies, so I tend to give out colored pencil sets, Play-Doh, silly putty, full sized coloring books, crayons, rubber stamps, keen hole punches (stars, foot prints, snow flakes, etc) and sketch books.
Weirdly, the Play Doh is very popular with the teenagers. I totally didn't see that one coming.
- Oh, and the fidget spinners the one year were incredibly popular. *eye roll*
I just had late 90s kid nostalgia. I would’ve been so happy seeing that in my bag.
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MarcyMavin wrote: »No. What’s contributing to childhood obesity is the after Halloween candy, the thanksgiving candy, Christmas candy, valentine candy, Easter candy, Pick your day of the week candy, breakfast candy, after school candy, I ate one carrot so now I get candy candy. Or whatever junk you want to replace candy with. Catch my drift here?
All true but you forgot stiiting on their butts in front of a screen instead of moving.3 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »I was just sitting here thinking about the probably 10k calories of candy the average kid might be taking home.
It is generally pretty cold does anyone make a pot of soup and give it out in cups?
What are other good alternatives? Seaweed snacks? They are green. Maybe fiber one bars? Or should a person focus on protein? I have a bunch of squid that I could smoke. That seems Halloween-ish.
Discuss.
1) I wouldn't let my kid consume anything not in the original packaging until after I looked at it (unless I knew the people they got it from). Soup, given what could easily be put in it by a nutjob and be undetectable would probably be one of the first things dumped out.
2) Kids have been trick or treating for years before childhood obesity became a thing. If the child has a weight problem (and even if they don't), the parents need to be parents and tell the child beforehand they can keep x number of candy items. Give the rest away or pitch.
Do you check all the food they get from a restaurant too? Maybe the scary nutjob poisoner works there and is not the person giving out delicious and comforting soup on Halloween. Why would you give a pass for people you know? Aren't the dangers always statistically higher from people you know?
Exactly this ^^
I worked in a restaurant for many years. Things "happen" to your food in restaurants before it gets to your table.
Be nice to your servers. Jus' sayin'
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Theoldguy1 wrote: »I was just sitting here thinking about the probably 10k calories of candy the average kid might be taking home.
It is generally pretty cold does anyone make a pot of soup and give it out in cups?
What are other good alternatives? Seaweed snacks? They are green. Maybe fiber one bars? Or should a person focus on protein? I have a bunch of squid that I could smoke. That seems Halloween-ish.
Discuss.
1) I wouldn't let my kid consume anything not in the original packaging until after I looked at it (unless I knew the people they got it from). Soup, given what could easily be put in it by a nutjob and be undetectable would probably be one of the first things dumped out.
2) Kids have been trick or treating for years before childhood obesity became a thing. If the child has a weight problem (and even if they don't), the parents need to be parents and tell the child beforehand they can keep x number of candy items. Give the rest away or pitch.
Do you check all the food they get from a restaurant too? Maybe the scary nutjob poisoner works there and is not the person giving out delicious and comforting soup on Halloween. Why would you give a pass for people you know? Aren't the dangers always statistically higher from people you know?
Checking kids candy and throwing away homemade items received from people you don't know wasn't something I made up. You will find the same guideline on most police/community Halloween safety lists.
I have yet to see a similar warning for restaurant food.5 -
I was just sitting here thinking about the probably 10k calories of candy the average kid might be taking home.
It is generally pretty cold does anyone make a pot of soup and give it out in cups?
What are other good alternatives? Seaweed snacks? They are green. Maybe fiber one bars? Or should a person focus on protein? I have a bunch of squid that I could smoke. That seems Halloween-ish.
Discuss.
Eh, just toss some candy at the kids and give out airline liquor bottles to the parents. They're the ones who really need a treat on Halloween.15 -
It's impacting obesity by 1/365 or 0.0027.8
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I was just sitting here thinking about the probably 10k calories of candy the average kid might be taking home.
It is generally pretty cold does anyone make a pot of soup and give it out in cups?
What are other good alternatives? Seaweed snacks? They are green. Maybe fiber one bars? Or should a person focus on protein? I have a bunch of squid that I could smoke. That seems Halloween-ish.
Discuss.
Definitely do not hand out anything homemade. There are a bunch of psychos who will put all sorts of nefarious things in their homemade treats (razors, pins, DNA samples, etc.).
This has actually never happened. The only cases of tampered Halloween treats have been parents killing their own kids.
For those who want to disagree: mentalfloss.com/article/12914/brief-history-sick-people-tampering-halloween-candy
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If you just hand out little treats, no. If you EAT all those little and not so little treats, YES!1
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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!8 -
I’m giving out gummi bears, which are FAT FREE, so they can’t make you fat.7
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SuzySunshine99 wrote: »I’m giving out gummi bears, which are FAT FREE, so they can’t make you fat.
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