Halloween

How Much Halloween Candy Will You Swipe From Kids’ Trick or Treat Bags?

October 28, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Come on, ‘fess up. What do you do? Do you just randomly grab candy out of trick or treat bags – or are you more selective? If your kids go trick or treating, when they get home do you dump everything in the bag on the table and go through it to hunt down your favorites?

Like it or not – candy rules on Halloween. Adults may dread the easy accessibility of candy – it’s everywhere – but secretly, a whole lot of us can’t wait to get our hands on our favorite kid candy.

Americans buy nearly 600 million pounds of candy for Halloween. On average, we eat 24 pounds of candy a year, probably a whole lot of it right around this time. The most popular types of candy, in order, are: chocolate, chewy candies, and hard candy.

What Do You Go For First?

Trick or Treat Bags – plastic pumpkins and colorful bags loaded with a collection of sweet memories and some dental nightmares.

If you’ve ever swiped candy from your kid’s trick or treat bag, don’t feel guilty. According to the National Confectioners Association you’re certainly not alone. Ninety percent of parents confess they occasionally dip into their kid’s stash.

And they do it big time! Parents eat one candy bar out of every two a child brings home. Favorite targets are snack-sized chocolate bars (70%), candy-coated chocolate pieces (40%), caramels (37%) and gum (26%).

How Many Calories Are In That Rick Or Treat Bag — Or Pumpkin?

It’s been estimated that, on average, a child in the US collects between 3,500 and 7,000 worth of candy calories on Halloween night.

Mathematically, it takes around 3,500 calories to gain or lose a pound, so you’re looking at around a pound or two if you would choose to eat all of those mostly sugar and fat candy calories on top of your regular meals.

It’s Just One Night …

One evening of collecting (and eating) candy certainly isn’t going to make anyone overweight or obese. But a constant bombardment of candy, sweets, and other treats can certainly lead to weight and health challenges.

Try this. Have a talk with your family – or with yourself — ahead of Trick of Treating to plan on what to do the candy collection. Is it to be a one-day free for all and then the trash — or will the candy by doled out in measured amounts over a given period of time? Do what works for your family but it helps if the kids buy into the plan.

What’s amazing is that when kids are offered the option of choosing how much and what kind of candy to eat, most of them don’t go overboard – they make their selections, eat it, and that’s it. It then helps if the candy fades from sight. It can be doled out in smaller portions day by day – or it can magically diminish in quantity or disappear entirely – just not down the hatch of an all-too-willing adult.

In Case You Want To Pick The Least Caloric Candy on Halloween . . .

October 24, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Here are the calories in some popular Halloween candy in case you want to minimize the caloric damage (you didn’t read that wrong — candy has a big range of calories and fat grams):

Brach’s Milk Maid Caramels: 4 pieces; 160 calories; 4.5 g fat
Kit Kat: Twix Miniatures (3 pieces); 150 calories; 7g fat
Butterfinger: Fun size; 100 calories; 4g fat
Snickers: Fun size; 80 calories; 4g fat
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup: Fun size; 80 calories, 4.5g fat
M&Ms: Fun size bag; 73 calories; 3g fat
Tootsie Rolls: 3 pieces; 70 calories; 1.5g fat
Brach’s Candy Corn: 11 pieces; 70 calories; 0g fat
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate: snack size .49-ounce bar; 67 calories; 4g fat
3 Musketeers: Fun size; 63 calories; 2g fat
Skittles Original Bite Size: Fun size bag; 60 calories; 0.7 g fat
Tootsie Roll Pop: 1 pop; 60 calories; 0g fat
Now and Later: 4 pieces; 53 calories; .5g fat
Peppermint Pattie: Fun size; 47 calories; 1g fat
Starburst Original Fruit Chews: 2 pieces; 40 calories; 0.8g fat
Dum Dum Pops: 1 pop; 25 calories; 0g fat

Has Your Perfect Pumpkin Ever Caved In?

October 17, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

One day your pumpkin is bright orange with a nice sturdy skin – looking just glorious. The next day it has collapsed in on itself and is just a slimy orange mess. What happened?

Many commercially available “Halloween” pumpkins are specifically grown to be oversized, thin-walled, with a huge seed pocket and a relatively small proportion of flesh, perfect for carving funny or scary faces. The smaller sugar pumpkins have more fleshy pumpkin meat for cooking and often have better flavor and texture.

A bit of pumpkin trivia: Pumpkins are a type of squash and are a member of the gourd family – think squash, cucumbers, and melons. We think of pumpkins as vegetables, but biologically they’re a fruit because they come from a flower and have seeds.

How To Avoid Pumpkin “Cave-In”

Because pumpkins come in many sizes, shapes, and colors you can look for one that appeals to your creative self. But, to avoid pumpkin “cave-in”:

Pick one with no cuts, bruises, or soft spots and with flesh that feels hard and doesn’t give easily. According to a pumpkin grower at my local farmers’ market, organisms can easily get inside any cut in the flesh – even a small nick — and cause rot. Your perfect pumpkin will be great one day and the next day it has totally caved-in on itself.
My farmers’ market source also told me that pumpkins can heal themselves (really, that’s what he said) – if you see a cut in the flesh, expose the cut to air and keep it dry.
There’s some chance that if your pumpkin is greenish in color you can leave it in a cool dry spot – not refrigerated – and it will ripen and turn orange.
A pumpkin’s stem should be attached, but don’t use it to pick the pumpkin up. Stems break off easily and can leave potential entry spots for organisms to invade and cause the dreaded pumpkin cave-in.
Gently tap your pumpkin and listen for how hollow it sounds. Lift it (not by the stem) to get an idea of how dense it is. The heavier a pumpkin is, the thicker its walls. If you’re going to carve a Jack-o’-lantern, thick walls will block the candlelight and no one will be able to see your fantastic (or maybe not so fantastic) carving.
Tall, oblong-shaped pumpkins are often stringier inside — which makes it difficult to make precise cuts.
Store your pumpkin carefully, especially if you pick it off the vine. You can toughen-up, or cure, a fresh-picked pumpkin by keeping it in a dry place without handling or disturbing it. Curing toughens the rind and makes it less prone to rot.

After The Carving . . .

A carved pumpkin starts to dry and shrivel up as soon as it’s cut and exposed to air.

To keep your jack-o’-lantern fresh longer:

Keep it cool and out of direct sunlight
Spray it with an anti-transpirant (like Wilt-Pruf and other brands).
If you’re having a party or just want a big “reveal,” drape your pumpkin with a damp towel until just before show time.
Protect your masterpiece from animals who might find it appealing.
Don’t leave your Jack-o’-lantern outside if there’s a threat of frost.

The Jack-o’-Lantern: A Devilish And Stingy Tale

October 15, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Have you ever wondered where the Jack-o’-lantern comes from?

According to an Irish legend that goes back hundreds of years, a miserable old drunk named Stingy Jack — who liked to play tricks on his family, friends, and even the Devil — tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree. Stingy Jack put crosses around the apple tree’s trunk so the Devil couldn’t get down — and told the Devil that if he wouldn’t take his soul when he died Stingy Jack would remove the crosses and let the Devil down.

When Jack died, Saint Peter, at the pearly gates of Heaven, told him that he couldn’t enter Heaven because he was mean, cruel, and had led a miserable and worthless life. Stingy Jack then went down to Hell but the Devil wouldn’t let him in, either. Ultimate payback! Jack was scared and with nowhere to go he had to wander around in the darkness between Heaven and Hell.

Jack-o’-Lanterns, Halloween, and Stingy Jack

Halloween, or the Hallowe’en in Ireland and Scotland, is short for All Hallows’ Eve, or the night before All Hallows. On All Hallows’ Eve the Irish made Jack-o’-lanterns by hollowing out turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes, and beets and then putting lights in them to keep the evil spirits and Stingy Jack away. In the 1800′s when Irish immigrants came to America, they discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve and the pumpkin became the Jack-o’-lantern.

If You Want To Eat Your Pumpkin . . .

Jumping from legend to fact: pumpkins come from a family of vegetables that includes cucumbers and melons. They’re fat free and can be baked, steamed, or canned.

One cup of pumpkin has about 30 calories, is high in vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber, and other nutrients like folate, manganese, and omega 3′s. Pumpkin is filled with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene, which gives it its rich orange color. Pumpkin seeds are a good source of iron, copper, and zinc but aren’t low in calories. They have 126 calories in an ounce (about 85 seeds) and 285 calories in a cup.

8 Great Things To Know About Candy Corn

October 10, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Infographic courtesy of www.candyusa.com — Infographic from www.candyusa.com

1. Candy corn was created in the 1880s by the Wunderlee Candy Company. It was popular among farmers who loved the corn kernel shaped candy that looked different from a lot of other candy. The Goelitz Candy Company, famous for their candy corn, began selling their brand around 1900. They still make candy corn today, but their company name has changed to the Jelly Belly Candy Company (guess what else they make!).

2. Candy corn is a type of candy that’s over 130 years old. It’s called “mellow cream,” or candy that’s made from corn syrup and sugar with a marshmallow kind of flavor. It tastes rich, but it’s actually fat-free.

3. The original three colors of candy corn — orange, yellow, and white — mimic a corn kernel although each piece of candy is about three times the size of an actual kernel. The wide side of the triangular candy is yellow, it’s orange in the middle, and the pointy end is white.

3. Although 75% of the annual candy corn production is for Halloween, you can find it year round in varying holiday colors.

Indian corn has a chocolate brown wide end, orange center and pointed white tip, often available around Thanksgiving
Blackberry cobbler candy corn can be found in eastern Canada around Halloween
Reindeer corn, for Christmas, is red, green, and white
Cupid corn for Valentine’s Day is red, pink, and white
Bunny corn for Easter is only a two-color candy, and comes with a variety of pastel bases (pink, green, yellow, and purple) with white tips all in one package.

4. Brach’s Candy Corn:

There are nineteen pieces in a serving.
A serving has140 calories (7.4 calories per kernel), zero grams of fat, 70 mg of sodium, 36 grams of carbs, and no protein.
A large bag of Brach’s candy corn is 22 ounces and has about 300 pieces.
Ingredients in Brach’s candy corn: sugar, corn syrup, confectioner’s sugar glaze, salt, honey, dextrose, artificial flavor, gelatin, titanium dioxide color, yellow 6, yellow 5, red 3, blue 1, sesame oil.

5. According to the National Confectioners Association:

candy makers will produce nearly 35 million pounds of candy corn this year
this is equal to about 9 billion individual kernels of corn, enough to circle the moon nearly 21 times if laid end-to-end
candy corn is so popular that it has its own day: October 30 is National Candy Corn Day.

6. How candy corn is made:

Originally it was made by hand.
Sugar, water, and corn syrup were cooked into a slurry (a thin mud consistency) in large kettles. Fondant (a sweet, creamy paste made from corn syrup, sugar, and water) and marshmallow were whipped in to give it a smooth texture and a soft bite.
The hot mixture was poured into “runners,” or hand-held buckets that held 45 pounds of candy mixture. Men called “stringers” walked backwards as they poured the steaming mixture into trays coated with cornstarch and imprinted with kernel-shaped molds. They made three passes; one each for the orange, white and yellow colors.
Today, the recipe is much the same but production is mechanized. A machine fills trays of kernel-shaped holes with cornstarch to hold the candy in corn triangle shapes. The holes are partially filled with white syrup, then orange syrup, followed by yellow syrup. The mold is allowed to cool, the mixture hardens for about 24 hours, then a machine empties the trays, the kernels to fall into chutes, and finally the candy corn is glazed to make it shine.

7. Candy corn and candy corn flavor is big – you find it in drinks, bagels, cookies, and ice cream.

Nabisco has a limited-edition of candy-corn Oreos with a yellow-and-orange cream filling sandwiched between vanilla wafers.
There are also candy corn M&Ms with this description on Amazon: “Two classic candies join together to put a new spin on a traditional fall favorite.M&M’s candy corn white chocolate candies combine M&M’s chocolate candies and candy corn. In the distinctive orange, yellow and white candy corn colors, these bright candies will bring a festive and delicious approach to snacking and decorating this fall.”

8. A survey of Americans found:

46.8%think the whole piece of candy corn should be eaten at once
42.7% think you should be start eating at the narrow, white end
10.6% like to start eating at the wider yellow end