Thumbs up Whole Foods for this healthy halloween campaign!

Love it! ambitious + impactful

Halloween arrives this year as my daughter completes her transition from a toddler to a preschooler and therefore, unlike last year, I will have less control over her choices, and this time around her trick and treat experiences are much more likely to impact her eating habits… I will therefore want to make sure that this highly marketed and colorful occasion doesn’t turn into a celebration of unhealthy eating which risks creating a fascination with unhealthy sugary treats. Furthermore, as I’ve noticed at my NYC building last year with children racing to my door, Halloween literally becomes a competition of who hoards the most treats and therefore kids end up amassing loads of candy, which can last them for weeks or months! So, while I cannot control the neighborhood, I have plans to make the Halloween experience as wholesome as possible for my daughter and her friends by coordinating with a couple of moms and her school to create a fun event focusing on the pretend-play and the costume side of the event as well as line-up healthy replacements in Halloweeny disguise (i.e. themed packaging or presentation) to give them a chance to compete with the shiny packaging of the typical sugary and highly processed treats.

Below is my list of suggested replacements:

My clementines celebrating Halloween!

Cereal and granola bars

Trail mix, unsalted plain roasted peanuts or pumpkin seeds (careful with allergic trick-or-treaters)

Cheese strings or individually wrapped mini cheese shapes

Unsalted plain popcorn

Mini boxes of raisins

Unsalted plain pretzels

Unsalted crackers

Single serve boxes of ready-to-eat cereal

Individual juice boxes (100% juice)

Apple or pear sauce

Dark chocolate bites

Fruit strips

Healthier Goodies

Handmade BOO!

Finally, what’s also important is that when the kids return home with their big bag of goodies (hopefully with more healthy than unhealthy stuff this year!) you should try to explain that while the treat wraps are colorful, those treats are not gift-wrapped toys! and they are not to be all opened and consumed in short order but rather they should be left in a “treasure box” and consumed as snacks and in moderation.