By Rachel Albert-Matesz

Now, let the record stand clear from the get go. Kids will be kids. They often want what their friends have and they will hound you relentlessly. As a parent you will be courting trouble if you think you can keep all candy and junk food out of the hands and mouths of babes at all times. For you must constantly deal with our current Candy Culture!

However, you can take steps to ensure that your children (indeed your entire family) have the most nutritious foods in the house and on the table. You can lay the foundation for healthy eating at an early age by being an excellent role model yourself, by making the commitment to spend your food dollars on only those foods that nourish, by teaching your children about the benefits of the foods you serve and enjoy, and by creatively preparing and presenting your family's meals and snacks. This aside, you will face times when the obstacles to feeding your children right seem monumental. Even if you do a fine job of keeping sugary sweets to a minimum throughout most of the year, holidays may overwhelm you and strangers, neighbors, and relatives may disarm you. The commercialized, institutionalized Candy Holidays will test you.

Halloween will arrive soon enough. The candy pours out of displays as early as September. It leaps out of the aisles to spook me as I make my way to the produce section. What I wouldn't give to live in a world without junk food. Not that it tempts me; it doesn't! But I feel for the defenseless children--- teased, tempted, and later tortured by the kiss of sugar on a daily basis.

Soon the little munchkins will try on ideas for costumes and entertain visions of multi-colored, multi-flavored candies all dancing in their heads. Meanwhile, I'll will fantasize about a world without conventional candy and candy-induced cavities, depression, mood swings, behavioral and developmental disorders, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, and about a new way to make this fantasy a reality. Some of the kindest, most well-intentioned and innocent people hand out candy like crazy, during the holidays and throughout the year. Most everywhere you go, you see it.

What can a parent to do? In the old days, people could give apples, pears, or dried fruits from their gardens. Home-made goodies now face the same taboo in these untrustworthy times, unless you know the giver well. And if you dare say "No! No Candy!" some sill say you are depriving your children. (When did you hear anyone way that a child might be deprived of nourishing, rowing food by eating so much refined, processed, and sugary food?) Some folks even go so far as to suggest that you are going to create an alienated sociopath if you don't permit your child to indulge in all of the junk foods passed around during all of the candy holidays and other sugary rituals, from birthdays and anniversaries to Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Memorial Day, bake sales, church picnics, and block parties. Special occasions and special treats are a rare thing indeed.

Although the abolition of junk food and candy holidays seems light years away and the spread of nutritional wisdom is likely to take nearly as long to catch up, I won?t let that stop me. Although I am not a parent, I was intrigued and excited when, about six years ago, I came upon an ideal starting place for my revolution.

A friend recounted her son and daughter-in-law?s special Halloween ritual. These parents were not vegetarians, vegans, current or ex-hippies, nor what anyone would call "health nuts" or "fringe dwellers"--- just average folks with a heartfelt concern for the health of their next of kin.

Gail and Andy started their Halloween ritual when their two boys were first able to go trick or treating, about three years old. The boys dressed up like other boys their age. Their dad took them to the homes of neighbors and close relatives in the area. Not uncommon, right?

Once home, the ritual took a new turn. Mom and dad went through their candy and let them each pick out 10 pieces to enjoy for one week after Halloween. Gail told me she and Andy let the kids keep the other good nutritious foods like raisins and pretzels. The rest of the stash was handed over to mom and dad in trade for a much larger present. Mom and dad tossed the remaining candy (you could give it away) and breathed sigh of relief.

Gail recalls that her boys never seemed to mind the deal because she would take them out to a toy store and they could pick out something that wasn't too expensive to trade for their sugary candy. The boys had just enough Halloween to feel like they'd been a part of the scene, but not so much that they'd spoil their teeth, their appetite for meals, or their otherwise pleasant dispositions.

Deprived? Not hardly, these kids had Halloween treats that lasted much longer and brought them more pleasure than any bag of candy ever could. They even learned a bit about delayed gratification--giving up something they liked for something bigger, better, and more durable.

Now, if the doubting Thomases among you think skeptically about the effectiveness of this strategy, take note! I have since passed this idea on to some of my girlfriends who have adopted it as an annual tradition. They have passed this on to others and some have applied the principles to Easter.

One of my friends creates healthy Easter baskets for her two boys (ages two and four), which she fills with fresh fruits and nuts. Her boys love healthy foods and homemade goodies and are used to that since that's she only brings foods into the house that provide nourishment and that she would eat. Later, as the boys get older, she may fill the baskets with dried fruit and nut mixes, homemade beef jerky, stickers, colored pencils, matchbox cars, plastic animals, and other non-cariogenic treats.

Some families don't celebrate Halloween for religious reasons. My friend Leslie, mother of two young girls (age five and six) told me "The girls know that candy is not good for them. For Easter last year, I told them they could each pick out one candy from their Easter Baskets. Then I told them they could give me their "junk treats" and trade them in for healthier ones.? The girls willingly went with her to the health foods store where they picked out dried fruits, nuts, and two fruit-nut bars, which they shared. Leslie plans to create Easter baskets stuffed with fancy socks, toy horses, jewelry, jacks, colored markers, and fun, educational activity books.

Me? I will have my sweet revenge this year and for all the years to come. Just to spite those doubting Thomases, this year I think I'll spread my message far and wide.

What will my husband and I do on "All Hallow's Eve?" As usual, (a) turn off the porch light and evacuate the front room, then hole up with a few good books; (b) buy miniature boxes of raisins to hand out and explain the virtues of wholesome natural foods; or, (c) give the younger children paper bags filled with stickers, colored pencils, or match box cars and toy figurines from a dicsount or second-hand store.

Maybe, just maybe, more of you who read this article will join me in my revolution. That would be the sweetest revenge of all!



Rachel Albert-Matesz, a freelance food & health writer, healthy cooking coach, cooking instructor, and personal chef based in in Phoenix, AZ. For info about her classes, services and The Garden of Eating A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook (Planetary Press, 2004). More than 150 of her articles have appeared in national and regional magazines, including Let?s Live, Natural Health, Qi: The Journal of Eastern Health & Fitness, Yoga Journal, The Toledo Parent, Oxygen Women's Fitness, Herbs for Health, the Herb Companion, and Natural Home, among others. Visit http://www.thegardenofeatingdiet.com/ or email her at: chefrachel@thegardenofeatingdiet.com.