5 Tips to Prevent Bingeing on Halloween Candy
Written by Isabel Vasquez RD, LDN
Spooky season is here and for many, that means it’s time to buy a big bag of Halloween candy for your family and trick-or-treaters that stop by.
Especially if you diet (or “eat clean” or “try to be good”, etc) throughout the year, having a bowl of Halloween candy sitting at home may be really stressful.
Even if you’ve decided dieting is no longer a sustainable option for you, this may be your first holiday season taking a non-diet approach to food. You may be worried because of the different types of food that will be present, especially candy. Candy can certainly be a fear food for many.
But Halloween candy doesn’t have to bring stress. In this article, learn 5 tips to reduce your stress around candy this Halloween so you can enjoy the holiday!
Buy the candy you want and let yourself enjoy it.
In a culture obsessed with keto, many people fear carbs. They’re diet culture’s latest target, after all. In reality, there’s nothing wrong with carbs; they’re our body’s main source of energy!
Sugar in particular stresses lots of people out, so having Halloween candy around might ramp up these food fears.
As counterintuitive as it may sound, letting yourself buy the candy you want and letting yourself enjoy it can be exactly what you need to finally release the hold sugar has on you.
You know how as a kid, when you weren’t allowed to have something it only made you want it more? Well, that happens to us as adults, too; however, the restriction is typically self-imposed.
When you tell yourself you can’t have sugar and that sugar is bad, it only makes you want it more. Your body and mind feel a sense of scarcity and they hyperfocus on the thing you are restricting.
So, rather than avoiding Halloween candy, let yourself eat the candy you really want (rather than a sugar-free or low-calorie one) and enjoy it. Over time, you’ll probably find that it holds less power over you.
Notice if you’re having a “last supper” mentality.
Are you having thoughts like, “After Halloween is over, I’m dumping the candy and getting ‘back on track” or “I have to eat all this candy because Monday I have to get back to ‘healthy’ eating!”?
If so, you may have a “last supper” or scarcity mentality around candy.
This mentality reduces (and may even eliminate) your enjoyment of the food you’re eating, and it can trigger binge eating.
Your body and mind recognize scarcity-minded thoughts about food as a threat.
You need food to live, after all, so if your body senses food is limited it’s more likely you’ll feel out of control around food and binge. This is called the binge-restrict cycle.
Even if you’re physically eating the candy, psychological restriction can trigger your body to feel scarcity, too.
So, if you are having a lot of thoughts about how you shouldn’t be eating the candy and how you’re only going to one more piece, it can trigger binge eating tendencies or food obsession.
Plus, when you’re already thinking about what you “need” to do in a few days to compensate for eating the candy, it takes all the satisfaction away from the experience.
In reality, you don’t need to do anything to “compensate” for it. You are allowed to eat foods that bring you pleasure. Period.
Pay attention to any satisfaction that comes from eating the candy so you can eat an amount that feels good for you and move on with your day.
Allow yourself to eat more candy the next day or the next week if you get the craving. By doing that, you can start to make peace with it.
Eat regular meals throughout the day.
Be mindful of whether you’re restricting food throughout the day or week to feel like you have “permission” to eat more holiday food.
Are you “saving calories” throughout the day to make that diet culture voice in your head more comfortable eating candy later?
Chances are, restricting will backfire. When you get to the point of primal hunger—an extreme form of hunger—it becomes much tougher to connect to your body’s cues.
At that point, your body is just focusing on helping you survive by eating all you can while it knows food is available.
Additionally, when your blood sugar is low from not eating enough or going long stretches of time without food, your body is more inclined to gravitate towards high-sugar foods to quickly raise your blood sugar and get quick energy!
There’s nothing inherently wrong with high-sugar foods, but it is something to be aware of.
To truly connect with your body and enjoy Halloween candy, continue with consistent nutrition throughout the day. Eat your regular meals and snacks and add in the Halloween candy when it makes sense.
This sets you up to better connect with your body’s cues and to have more sustained energy levels throughout the day. It also prevents you from binge-eating Halloween candy.
Consider the language you use to describe candy.
“Treat”, “indulgence”, “junk”, “bad”, and “unhealthy” are all common words used to describe candy. Yet, their connotation can cause more guilt and shame around eating it.
Consider how these words really make you feel.
Do they make it feel like candy is something you need to limit?
Oftentimes, when foods get labeled in these ways it stigmatizes them, which results in psychological (if not also physical) restrictions.
It makes it seem as though you are bad or wrong for eating these so-called bad foods. So, many people feel guilty after eating them.
When there’s guilt, it’s harder to find satisfaction with food and notice when your body has had enough or when it wants more. External rules get in the way of you connecting with your body.
On the other hand, acknowledging that it is just food that can fit into your overall eating pattern without having such a stigma around it is key to improving your relationship with food.
Candy can just be one type of food that you include in your overall eating pattern.
Consider using more neutral descriptors to describe foods like candy, such as “yummy” or “sweet” or “satisfying” or “delicious”.
Overall, be mindful of whether the words you’re using to describe food increase your guilt about eating the food and acknowledge that you are not inherently bad or good for what you eat.
Be gentle with yourself.
Maybe you will end up reaching primal hunger and feeling out of control around the candy. Or maybe you won’t reach primal hunger, but a history of restriction will leave you feeling out of control around candy.
Maybe you’ll feel a ton of guilt eating the candy or maybe you’ll limit it entirely.
That’s okay.
Look at it as an opportunity to learn more about your relationship with food and how to take care of your body.
Get curious about what made it tough and how you handled it.
No one is going to ditch the diet mentality and magically have a better relationship with food overnight. It takes time and practice. Show yourself compassion.
You can take what you’ve learned this Halloween and apply it to the holidays to come!
Final Thoughts
The holiday season can bring up lots of food fears, and Halloween is no exception.
Given that candy is at the center of Halloween, many people fear the sugar content and try to find hacks to avoid overdoing it. Yet, making peace with food means letting yourself eat the candy and enjoy it.
Even if you eat a bunch and don’t feel good, be gentle with yourself.
It takes time to make peace with foods that diet culture labels as “bad”. Most of all, remember that what you eat says nothing about your worth.
If you’re interested in improving your relationship with food and your body, our 3-part registered dietitian-led masterclass on intuitive eating is a great first step.
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