Emma Frisch – an amazing cookbook author, culinary educator and meal plan wizard – asked me to share three tips for parents on handling candy and stress around kids’ obsession with it during Halloween.
Halloween, like many end-of-year traditions, is a time of food abundance, for which we’re not always in a mindset to manage. As kids, we often learned that when food was abundant, it should also be saved or restricted. We often default to restricting food abundance, a mindset we learned as kids and may pass on to our own children.
On top of this conditioning, we’ve also been hammered with the message that sugar is bad. While it’s true that candy shouldn’t dominate our diets, it’s important to remember that no food is inherently good or bad, but there are good and bad interactions with foods. Listen to my audio to learn more!
And if you like the idea to also shift the focus from candy and sweets to the tradition surrounding it – in the case of Halloween, it may be about Emma’s ritual of building an ancestor altar, dressing up, trick-or-treating with friends. Aside from cool ideas like these, Emma can also help you out with easy, delicious pre-made meal plans.
If you need help breaking the cycle of good and bad interactions with food, I invite you to take a look at my Family Food Flow, my new group membership for parents to raise healthy, multicultural eaters. Or book your free online introductory session (30 minutes) and discover how I can help you and your family.
© 2024 Sofie De Niet. The information in this article does not constitute personal medical advice. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a healthcare professional.
