Halloween is only a couple of days away, which means it’s time for households to start stocking up on sweets for the hordes of costumed children.
This moment can be hard on more health conscious homeowners. On the one hand, you want to participate in the festivities, ideally by providing snacks that won’t actively destroy the health and dental well-being of the neighborhood’s munchkins.
On the other hand, you don’t want to be the house handing out apples and quarters. It’s the 21st century, for crying out loud. Gone are the days of tossing popcorn into a trick or treater’s bag.
Healthy Halloween Candies
For those of you experiencing a moral conundrum, fear not. We have here for you some less-destructive options this Halloween that will keep you among the good houses on the neighborhood’s trick or treat map.
- Sugar-Free Gum: Are you going to win any popularity contests with this? No. But your house shouldn’t get toilet papered either. Sugar-free candies and gums are sweet, and by denying bacteria sugar to feed on you are preventing decay-causing acids.
- Powder Candies: Items like Pixie Sticks give kids the sweet jolt inducing goodness of a normal candy, but because the sugar is powdered it will dissolve and wash away quickly with saliva. This means that the bacteria have less time in the mouth, and consequently less access to the teeth.
- Chocolate: Believe it or not, the world’s most popular sweet is not the worst thing in the world for your teeth. Like powder candies, chocolate dissolves in the mouth quickly and is easy to eat. There’s even a little calcium, which can have a (small) positive impact on your enamel. However, there is a caveat. Chocolate bars or candies that have a sticky filling, such as nougat or caramel, have a tendency to get stuck to teeth, thereby bringing them into contact with bacteria.
- Health-conscious hosts will want to avoid chewy candies or hard candies at all cost. Not only can they get stuck to teeth, but chewing on hard candies can even damage teeth.
Keeping the recommended sweets on hand, though, should keep Halloween safe for your neighbor’s teeth while simultaneously satisfying their candy craze.
