The Leader • Saturday, October 19, 2019 • Page 1B
Neighbors giving out more than candy this Halloween Zarah Parker Managing Editor
During the candy-centered holiday of Halloween, trickor-treaters will be dressed in costumes as they walk doorto-door to collect an array of goodies. Candy is king on Halloween, so much so that for the holiday the National Retail Federation predicts that $2.6 billion will be spent on candy alone this year. Yet, there’s a growing trend of being more health-conscious on a day when candy becomes a freefor-all. Some houses will keep their porch lights turned off on Oct. 31, but many neighborhood families are gearing up for the holiday with candy and noncandy options to keep with the spirit of fun. In neighborhood Facebook groups, local residents shared how they would be treating costumed kids knocking on their front doors. “We make bags with a can-
dy assortment, but we always include Hershey’s chocolate. We make and give out 80 bags then turn out the lights,” Betty Richardson said. “One year, before we made bags, a child was thrilled by our huge bowl of chocolate bars. I was letting each child choose three snacksize bars, and he chose three Hershey bars. As he ran off to go to another house I heard him yelling, ‘Hey, guys! This house gives away chocolate.’” Chocolate is a favorite Halloween treat for those big and small. According to a recent poll from Monmouth University, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are people’s top choice in candy. In second place is Snickers, followed by M&M’s. Hershey’s bars tied for fourth with candy corn. “I’ll be giving out what I like,” Trinka Turnbow said, “old-school chocolate.” Another area resident said she buys some candy, but mostly she gets snacks that kids can put in their lunch boxes like Goldfish, pretzels and popcorn. Cassi Squyres said she buys the standard mixed bags of chocolates treats, but also has
a stash of toys and bracelets for those who don’t want or can’t have candy. “Honestly the toys are more popular,” Squyres said. “Last year we ran out of the light-up spider rings, little glow-in-thedark bracelets, light-up bouncy balls and skull beads way before the candy.” Many locals are jumping on the same train of including fun trinkets with their candy options, like witch’s fingers, eyeball balls, sticky toys, stickers, pencils, bubbles and even books. “My stepdad would get books for the kiddos every year. The same kids would come back year after year looking for books,” Georgia Bownds said. “They called him the book man. They loved the books.” Capri Sun pouches used to be a staple giveaway at LeeAnn Hickman’s house. She was able to get them at a good price and the kids loved them because of how thirty they would get walking through the neighborhood. But, on the first of November she would have to walk up and down her block picking up discarded contain-
Stock photo Halloween, and the trick-or-treaters that come with it, is fast approaching. Area residents have a variety of opinions on what to hand out to children who knock on their doors.
ers, so she stopped. Even though locals who give out treats other than candy said the little toys and trinkets are just as popular, if not more popular, a few people wondered how the kids really felt about it.
While acknowledging that kids are different today, Liz Christensen said that when she was a kid she hated and learned to avoid the houses that didn’t give out candy. For people who want to give out candy and still be mind-
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Bubble Egg treats taste as good as they look By Zarah Parker zarah@theleadernews.com A worker was pouring waffle mix into a honeycomb machine, closing and flipping it before moving on to pour mix into another machine. The smell of cooking waffles permeated the air. This was my first sight walking into Bubble Egg, a place that specializes in treating customers to the iconic Hong Kong street snack called egg waffles. The waffles are used as cones for various ice cream flavors and toppings. Bubble Egg features five signature waffles on its menu that has a preset theme, like the “Chocolate Wasted,” which is made of chocolate ice cream and chocolate toppings. Or you can create your own cone, ice cream and topping mix. I ordered a “Banana Fundae” from the signature side of the menu. It came with vanilla ice cream, chocolate drizzle, flute wafers, sliced strawberries, sliced bananas, whipped cream and sprinkles. My niece, who stared wideeyed at the egg waffle cones, created her own with chocolate ice cream and gummy bears. My nephew got a cup of Oreo ice cream with extra
Photo by Zarah Parker Shown is the chocolate ice cream with gummy bear topping in an egg waffle and the star of the show, a Banana Fundae.
Oreos on top. He doesn’t like to branch out. Because the cones are made fresh, and some of the options, like mine, take more time to dress up, the wait was a little longer than a typical scoop-and-serve ice cream shop. The presentation of the cone was pretty. And when ice cream is pretty I’m always a little skeptical about whether it will be as tasty as it looks.
A scoop of vanilla ice cream was nestled in the middle and whipped cream lined the top, with the fruit slices and wafers protruding out of the cone. The drizzle and sprinkles topped it off. The taste was equally as good as the look. The combination of creamy ice cream and sweet fruit was in harmony with the cone. Vanilla ice cream goes with almost anything, so what really shined
here was the egg waffle cone. Even though I watched the waffles being made, because I’ve only eaten crunchy waffle cones, I expected these to be crunchy as well. Instead, they were doughy and could be eaten bubble by bubble. Aside from the dessert, what I enjoyed most was the green space right outside the shop in the 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth development. Lawn chairs were set up and the cornhole game is available for anyone to play. It was nice to be able to kick back in a chair and watch my niece and nephew run off the sugar rush they got by gobbling down their treats, while I was still eating mine. The cost for an egg waffle cone with ice cream is pricy, about $8, which normally would automatically knock some points off, but I found the entire dessert and experience enjoyable, so I’d say it was worth it.
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Trick or treat? Give them what they want to eat By Zarah Parker zarah@theleadernews.com A typical trick-or-treater will consume up to 7,000 calories from candy on Halloween night. Excess sugar can lead to a host of health problems. It affects brain chemistry and causes the heart not to function properly because of rising blood pressure. Sugar also raises blood sugar levels and causes tooth decay. So should kids really be allowed to pig out on candy on the spookiest day of the year? I say let them. The average American consumes 3.4 pounds of candy around Halloween. According to the American Chemical Society, the lethal dose of sugar for humans is about 5.4 pounds in one sitting. So as long as someone keeps their sugar intake well below that weight, they’ll survive. While I don’t recommend testing that limit, or even eating the average of 3.4 pounds, the real concern here is how much candy kids should be allowed to eat on Halloween. Obviously, that’s up to parents. But, one night of extra candy and a sugar high won’t be the end of the world or their health. Actually, letting the kiddos get out their sugar craving in one night might actually be a
ful of children’s health, the American Dental Association suggests chocolate because it washes off teeth easier than other types of candy. Dark chocolate would be even better because it contains antioxidants and less sugar.
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Stock photo Kids across the United States typically consume a large amount of candy on Halloween. Zarah Parker says it’s OK to allow children to feast on sugar as long it’s just on one day out of the year.
better idea than giving them their Halloween candy in spurts across a few days. According to Temple University pediatric dentist Mark Helpin, the frequency of eating candy and other refined carbohydrates, and their stickiness, are big factors in creating the risk of cavities. Eating those carbohydrates changes the pH balance in the mouth, making it more acidic. This acidic environment is what increases the risk of cavities. And it takes about an hour to dissipate. Now, you might be thinking that sounds like a statement against the gobbling up of candy, but it’s not.
If you’re already allowing your kid to have candy, it’s better to let them have it in one sitting rather than giving them a little at a time because the acidic environment will have already been created. If I eat a piece of candy, the pH levels in my mouth won’t go back to normal for up to an hour, and if I eat three pieces of candy instead of just one, that time frame stays the same. If I eat a piece, then eat another an hour or so later, or the next day, I’m creating an acidic environment in my mouth for a longer period of time, which raises the risk of cavities even more.
When I was a kid, once I got home from trudging up and down Oak Forest streets with my pillowcase full of Halloween candy, I ate my favorite candies and by the next day I wasn’t all that concerned about the bag of candy because all my favorites were gone. Most kids probably aren’t like that. In fact, the kids in my family are looking for that bag of candy for days afterward. The best choice is to let kids eat their favorite candies on Halloween night, but make it known that the candy leniency is for one night only.
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