By Anne Blythe
For many, Halloween is a fun-filled night with clever costumes, giant skeletons standing sentinel over plastic boneyards littered with rubbery, bloodied extremities and glowing jack-o-lanterns guarding bowls of treats.
While many sweet-toothed trick-or-treaters delight in the sugary goodness awaiting them beyond the mazes of pseudo-spooky obstacles, All Hallows Eve can be a real fright night for those with food allergies and sensitivities — and for their caregivers.
Goodies with common allergens — peanuts, milk, eggs and wheat — often lurk in those bowls. So do some synthetic food dyes that have been getting more scrutiny under the “Make America Healthy Again” initiative spearheaded by U.S. Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
There’s good news for those dreading the devil in the details of the Halloween goody ingredient lists.
The Virginia-based Food Allergy Research & Education program, or FARE, has created the Teal Pumpkin Project to offer safer and more inclusive alternatives for trick-or-treaters with food allergies and sensitivities.
Those who want to participate are asked to host an event or fill a teal-colored pumpkin with non-food treats. The nonprofit organization has created a map for participants and those seeking another option.
This year, the organization has launched the Teal Pumpkin Walk-In, an initiative described as “more than a holiday activity.” Families are encouraged to dress up in costumes and visit the local offices of elected officials to let them know that more than 33 million people across the country have a food allergy that can cause a life-threatening reaction. They won’t be there to advocate for specific legislation, according to the organization’s literature.
“Raising awareness is an important part of being a food allergy advocate,” according to the organization’s guide.
Beyond the labels
As food allergy awareness grows — and more families skip the synthetic food dyes — more candy companies are creating new products for those looking for choices.
Unreal Brands markets products the company says are made without artificial dyes, flavors or sweeteners.
YumEarth markets what it describes as “allergy friendly sweets,” which the company says are product offerings that have been free of artificial dyes, eggs, fish, gluten, dairy, peanuts, shellfish, soy, tree nuts and sesame since 2007.
As anybody who has packed an EpiPen, or epinephrine, for a night of trick-or-treating knows, it’s important to read the labels and beware of anything that might lead to the unwelcome horror of a severe allergic reaction.
Lindsey Smith Taillie, a nutrition epidemiologist at UNC Chapel Hill, has studied whether food labeling and marketing policies can help consumers make healthier choices that influence diet and obesity in this country and abroad.
While she does not discourage people from paying attention to ingredient lists, she would like to see the focus on healthier eating for children to extend beyond one holiday.
“Candy is candy is candy,” Smith Taillie told NC Health News in an email. “It’s ultraprocessed and it’s high in sugar. Even though people are very concerned about things like food dye these days, the main dietary driver of poor health in kids and adults are not food dyes but the type of food [that] food dyes come in — the candy, yes, but also sugary drinks, sugary cereal, cookies, pastries, granola bars, crackers and chips.”
Lessons from Latin America
As part of her research, Smith Taillie has studied the impact of taxes on sugary beverages, warning labels on the front of food and beverage packaging, and marketing restrictions in Latin American countries like Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
She has tested some of those strategies in controlled tests at the UNC Mini Mart, “an experimental store” at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention where people can buy and take home food and drinks for their families while also testing product and label designs.
“Latin America has been a leader in global food policy,” Smith Taillie said. “Two immediate policies that Latin America uses that would benefit us is clear, bold front-of-package labeling that signals when a food is unhealthy—and secondly, making sure that foods that are unhealthy don’t carry health and nutrition claims.”
As an example, she said, fruit drinks are “the top source of sugary drinks for kids.” They often carry nutrition claims, she added, that can make parents and others think they are healthier than they are. If they carried clear and accurate front-of-package labeling, Smith Taillie said, people would quickly recognize when foods are filled with unhealthy amounts of sugar.
This is different from the focus on labeling at Halloween, she said, because it helps distinguish between foods that might seem healthy but aren’t, such as sugary yogurts or cereals.
Another lesson Americans could learn from south of the border is to provide healthier school lunch options that can also go a long way toward teaching children healthy food preferences that last a lifetime. This summer, she co-authored an opinion piece that stresses the need to clearly define ultraprocessed foods, or UPFs.
“These foods account for two-thirds of what American kids eat, and these foods are associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and mental health disorders,” Smith Taillie and her co-author James Krieger, a professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health, wrote. “If UPFs are the diagnosis, the prescription is clear: We need strong, science-based policies to improve kids’ diets and protect their health.”
Beyond the night of fright
Even with all that research and knowledge, Smith Taillie will be among the many households welcoming trick-or-treaters this week. With candy.
“Usually something chocolatey like Twix,” she said. “I have a huge sweet tooth — I always have. I don’t drink soda, and I try to limit things like cookies, pastries and other sweets — which are top sources of added sugar in the US. Same thing for my kids.”
Smith Taillie said she makes sure they start the day with avocado toast, eggs or oatmeal. She’s “careful about ‘hidden’ added sugars in foods like yogurt or sauces. Being mindful about added sugar in our daily food allows us to splurge occasionally while also maintaining a healthy diet.”
If she had her druthers, Smith Taillie would not worry so much about what’s in trick-or-treat bags or buckets this Halloween She would rather change what’s on kids’ day to day lunch trays and dinner plates, replacing ultraprocessed foods with more whole foods such as fruits, vegetables and lean proteins.
The main thing caregivers can do as trick-or-treaters gather bags full of sugary treats is to keep moderation in mind, Smith Taillie added. That goes for adults, too, who dig into their kids’ candy stash after bedtime or during school.
Some dentists encourage children to bring unopened candy to their offices that they collect for military care packages and other charitable projects. Parents have gotten into the game, too, with some adopting the Switch Witch tradition: They encourage their children to choose a limited amount of candy to keep and to leave the rest out overnight. By the morning, the candy has been magically swapped for a small toy or gift.
“Consider parsing out Halloween candy in small doses or donating extra candy,” Smith Taillie said. “The time and place to try to get kids to eat healthier & more sustainable diets is during breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. A little candy on a once-a-year holiday is fine, so long as it’s limited to that.”
The post Food allergies can make Halloween tricky to navigate appeared first on North Carolina Health News.
