Health News
- Halloween Candy Hikes Risk Of Cavities, Not Just From More Sugar, But From More Frequent Eating Of It; Here Are Tooth-friendly Tips
Photo from EnviroDad.comHalloween candy can rot your teeth. At Halloween, the issue is not just sugar, it's how often you eat it. Often, kids bring enough candy home from trick-or-treating to last a lifetime, but then eat the candy in a few days....
- Halloween Treats Can Be Healthy, And Trick-or-treaters With Diabetes Can Still Be Part Of The Fun
It wouldn't be Halloween without candy and chocolate in pillowcases and paper sacks. But with childhood obesity and diabetes rates looking as scary as the ax murderers and zombies knocking at the door, parents may consider handing out something other...
- The Halloween Candy Face-off: Real Simple Magazine Tries To Answer Which Candy Is Healthier
A nutritional analysis by Real Simple magazine pitted favorite Halloween treats against one another to see which are healthier. While neither winner is necessarily good for you, the competition offers one way to choose the lesser of two evils. (Photo...
- Smart Snacking: Part One
By Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom It?s hard to make healthy foods choices when you?re running around, and don?t have time to preplan. In the perfect world, you?d be carrying a fruit, or small protein bar, or a small bag of nuts when you need a snack. In...
- Beware Of The Office Candy Jar!
By Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom With the Thanksgiving holiday behind us, a predictable food phenomenon occurs in offices everywhere: the sudden appearance of holiday candy jars, filled to the brim with all kinds of treats! Even on desks of the most healthful...
Health News
Four Facts About Candy
By Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom
With Halloween on the horizon, I thought it would be fun to provide a little ?candy trivia.? If you choose to indulge, stick with the ?fun size? servings at around 100 calories, and you get to eat the whole thing! Here are some of my favorite candy facts.
1. Nearly half of the 200 million pounds of candy sold in America is at Halloween. Most of the other half is sold at Easter and Valentine?s Day.
2. The top selling candy in America is candy corn. But we don?t know how much we eat, and how much we use for crafts and decorations.
3. Candy does not cause weight gain and often supports weight loss. The Swiss are among the biggest consumers of chocolate (about 2 pounds per month per person) in the world, yet they have an overweight/obesity rate of around 7%! In the United States, about 35% of the population is overweight or obese. Allowing yourself a small amount of chocolate or candy can be an indication of good control over food, not the opposite!
4. The mood elevating effects of candy occur within minutes. The mood changes reported after candy consumption include happiness, a sense of well-being, and feeling great or less depressed. But the immediate benefits of candy consumption are connected to the pleasantness of the taste (sensory stimulation from your taste buds) and your own anticipated views of how the candy makes you feel ? not a change in brain chemistry. Many foods, including candy, can be a source of pleasure because we?ve received a lot of positive reinforcement for eating them.
Do you have any candy facts you?d like to share?
Happy Halloween!!
- Halloween Candy Hikes Risk Of Cavities, Not Just From More Sugar, But From More Frequent Eating Of It; Here Are Tooth-friendly Tips
Photo from EnviroDad.comHalloween candy can rot your teeth. At Halloween, the issue is not just sugar, it's how often you eat it. Often, kids bring enough candy home from trick-or-treating to last a lifetime, but then eat the candy in a few days....
- Halloween Treats Can Be Healthy, And Trick-or-treaters With Diabetes Can Still Be Part Of The Fun
It wouldn't be Halloween without candy and chocolate in pillowcases and paper sacks. But with childhood obesity and diabetes rates looking as scary as the ax murderers and zombies knocking at the door, parents may consider handing out something other...
- The Halloween Candy Face-off: Real Simple Magazine Tries To Answer Which Candy Is Healthier
A nutritional analysis by Real Simple magazine pitted favorite Halloween treats against one another to see which are healthier. While neither winner is necessarily good for you, the competition offers one way to choose the lesser of two evils. (Photo...
- Smart Snacking: Part One
By Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom It?s hard to make healthy foods choices when you?re running around, and don?t have time to preplan. In the perfect world, you?d be carrying a fruit, or small protein bar, or a small bag of nuts when you need a snack. In...
- Beware Of The Office Candy Jar!
By Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom With the Thanksgiving holiday behind us, a predictable food phenomenon occurs in offices everywhere: the sudden appearance of holiday candy jars, filled to the brim with all kinds of treats! Even on desks of the most healthful...