Tricks for a Healthy Halloween - Now That's a Treat!

Whether you celebrate with your little ones or with friends and coworkers, Halloween hauls don't have to ruin your health.  Here are my tips to help you enjoy the celebration without spinning off track.

For little ones going trick-or-treating:

1) Limit the number of houses you hit trick-or-treating.  Decide how you want to do this beforehand, and make sure the kids know the plan.
Make it fun:
- Choose houses with the best decorations and unique jack-o-lanterns.  See if you can take pictures of the decorations, and make sure to compliment the homeowner's decorations when you reach the door.  This takes the emphasis off just getting candy.
- If you're trick-or-treating in a group of 4 or more (e.g. 2 parents/chaperones and 2 children), split into teams and choose one street or block per team.  See who can finish their route first.  The winning team gets first pick of an extra (healthy) treat or item, such as sheets of stickers, temporary tattoos, or a small toy, from the chaperones.  When teams meet up again, they can trade up to 5 treats between them.

2) Let them choose a few pieces of candy to eat after trick-or-treating, then sort through the rest to either keep for another day or toss/give away.  Have them take out items they don't want, and set an upper limit (e.g. 5, 10, or 20 pieces) for the stuff they can keep.  If they tend to "toss" healthier items, like mini-boxes of raisins, save them anyway, either for yourself or for their lunchboxes another day.
Bonus: The "Switch Witch" is a neat idea to get rid of excess candy without your kids feeling deprived of their hard-earned haul.  Like the Tooth Fairy, the Switch Witch leaves something behind - crayons, bubbles, silly bandz, etc. - in exchange for the candy.

For trick-or-treaters visiting your house:

3) Choose "healthier" treat options.  Examples:
- Mini-boxes of raisins such as PC Organics (they come 14 boxes to a bag)
- Mini-bags of organic popcorn or non-GMO verified chips
- Organic chocolates such as Camino or Barkley's (you may find these in the bulk section or checkout counters at some health food stores)
- Organic lollipops such as Yum Earth
- Individual packets of SaviSeeds
- Non-GMO verified snack bars like Enjoy Life (also top-allergen-free) or Nature's Path
- Individually-wrapped ginger candies
Get creative and see what healthy options are available in your area.

4) Give out non-food treat alternatives.  Examples:
- Stickers
- Temporary tattoos
- Bubbles
- Halloween novelty items (e.g. spider rings, bouncing eyeballs, etc.)
- Pencils and erasers
- Crayons
- Play-Doh
- Small toys (e.g. army men, dinosaurs, zoo animals, Lego pieces, etc.)
- City of Ottawa swim/skate coupons
Again, get creative and see what you can find!

For health-conscious adults:

5) If you're tempted to dig in to your kids' leftover/unwanted candy, or more importantly, tempted to binge on that candy, bring it with you to work to share with coworkers, donate it to a Food Bank, or just throw it away.

6) If you're hosting or attending a Halloween party, and want to make something fun but not unhealthy, look for healthy Halloween ideas on sites like Pinterest.  Some good ones: pumpkin-shaped energy balls, "frog eggs & eyeballs" (coconut green tea chia pudding with lychees), veggies arranged into skeletons or jack-o-lanterns, etc.  Check out my Playing with Food Pinterest board for these ideas and more!

7) Sugar overload can be hard to avoid during Halloween celebrations.  To help minimize the amount of white refined sugar you and your loved ones consume, make Halloween treats with healthier alternatives, such as organic coconut sugar, unsulphured blackstrap molasses, raw honey, dates or date paste, raisins, apple sauce, cinnamon, organic vanilla extract, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, or organic cane sugar.
Avoid artificial sweeteners like Equal, NutraSweet, Sugar Twin, Splenda, and Hermesetas.  These contain aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin, among other harmful chemicals.
For a no-calorie natural alternative, try a good-quality stevia powder or extract.  Be sure to read the ingredients, as not all stevia products are pure stevia and may contain fillers, even hidden GMOs.  The label should indicate rebaudiana, Reb-A, or stevia leaf powder/extract only.

For everyone:

8) Be informed.  Know what some of the food industry's buzzwords are and what they may mean.  "All natural", for example, is not regulated as a labeling term, and products boasting this claim may in fact contain GMOs, pesticides, and other hidden horrors (like the ambiguous "natural flavours").  Check out this list of potential GMO ingredients, and this list of GMO-containing brands and products.
As with everything else, when in doubt, go organic.

Remember to stay safe and have fun!  Happy Halloween!

Do you have healthy Halloween tricks to cope with all the treats?  Share them with me!

Healthy Holidays + Quick Recipe: Personal Vegan Apple Crisp

The days are getting cooler and darker, the leaves are transforming brilliantly before the trees shed this vibrant plumage to settle into their winter whites, and you may find your tastes and cravings run more toward warm and comforting foods.  And it's a great time to indulge them - but can we do that and still eat healthy?

In a word: yes!

The fall and winter seasons are dry and cold, sometimes crisp and even bitter - think of the crunch of dry leaves, a chill wind, or a fresh layer of ice on snow.  According to Ayurveda, eating foods with these similar Vata properties - dry, crisp, cool, bitter - can exacerbate symptoms of Vata imbalance, such as dry skin, crackling joints, and disarrayed thoughts.  To balance this, we turn to foods with opposing Kapha attributes - moist, warm, sweet, soft.

And not surprisingly, holiday fare is loaded with Kapha foods: yams and sweet potatoes, squash and pumpkin dishes, stuffing... and desserts.

That said, though these foods are grounding and can help balance excess Vata, it can be easy to overindulge and feel heavy, sleepy, and over-full.  Sticking to fibre-rich vegetable and legume dishes more often than starchy grains and potatoes, keeping meat portions reasonable (4 oz. is plenty), choosing a healthy fat at each meal, and watching portions overall can help minimize overeating.  Stick to your food log habits through the holidays, but don't punish yourself for "giving in" to dessert; instead, savour it slowly as a once-a-year treat.

Of course, making dessert healthier with nutritious, clean ingredients can help minimize holiday guilt, so here I'm giving you a healthier fall dessert option that you don't have to feel bad about serving to your guests - or eating all by yourself.  This is a single-serve recipe, so multiply it for however many people you want to serve.  It's an easy-to-make crowd-pleaser that always impresses when I bring it to my family's Thanksgiving feast.  Happy baking!

 Personal Vegan Apple Crisp
Ingredients:
- 1 small or ½ large organic apple (I used royal gala, but granny smith is amazing), cored and diced
- 1 Tbsp. organic coconut sugar (less if using a sweet apple)
- 1 Tbsp. organic oats
- 1 Tbsp. organic coconut oil
- ½ Tbsp. organic spelt flour
- ¼ tsp. organic cinnamon
- pinch sea salt
- 5-6 raw walnut or pecan halves, optional

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400⁰F.

Spread the diced apple in the bottom of an oven-safe ramekin or French onion soup bowl.

Mix the remaining ingredients except walnuts in a small bowl to make the topping.  The mixture should be slightly clumpy but not powdery or pasty.

Sprinkle the topping evenly over the apple.
Arrange the nut halves on top.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until sugar melts and apple is tender.
Serve warm.

Optional indulgences: drizzle with 1 tsp. pure maple syrup or a dollop of cashew cream; or serve à la mode with a scoop of maple or vanilla coconut ice cream.  Great with a cup of rooibos chai tea.

Make it gluten-free: look for certified uncontaminated GF oats, such as Only Oats, and skip the spelt flour (try it with coconut, almond, or rice flour, or all-purpose GF baking flour, instead).

Bonus: double everything except the sugar to enjoy dessert for breakfast.  Serve topped with ¼ cup coconut or almond yogourt and raw pumpkin seeds.

Enjoy!

Edit: This recipe also appears in my holiday recipe e-book, Love Plants for Life: Plant-Based Holiday Solutions, featuring 12 of my favourite allergy-friendly holiday recipes!  Available now.

The advice in this article is not meant to replace the advice of your doctor or other health care professional.  Always consult your health care professional before undertaking any radical change in your diet.

Supplement Review: Vega Sport Pre-Workout Energizer, Regular vs. Sugar-Free

Some days it can be hard to find the energy to get up and out the door for a workout.  There are many ways to help boost your energy reserves prior to exercise, and energy drinks have become a popular choice.  

However, the fizzy stuff that comes in cans ranging in size from small to monstrous also comes with a range of health risks, including racing heartbeat, insomnia, dysglycemia, and more, which affect the long-term health of the athlete, someone who would otherwise be considered in great health.  There have even been strings of sudden deaths of young athletes on the field from cardiac arrest, which have been attributed to overuse of these drinks.

Natural (and safer) ways to energize your body and mind before and during endurance exercise include dates with nuts or seeds, a banana, green or yerba mate tea, sweet potatoes, or brown rice.  Finding something easy to consume and portable can be especially advantageous.

Regular, açai-berry

Here I’ll review the first stage of a line of sport supplements I use regularly and have come to love.  The Vega Sport line is laid out quite simply, with colour-coded products for each stage of exercise: before (“Prepare”, yellow), during (“Sustain”, red), and after (“Recover”, blue).  There are products in each stage that are staples in my supplement cabinet to fuel my workouts, and one of these is the Pre-Workout Energizer.

Like most of the Vega Sport products, this is a drink powder that is mixed with water.  Until recently, there was only one form of this product that came in two flavours, lemon-lime and açai-berry, that come in individual-serving packets as well as 30-serving canisters.  The açai-berry is my flavour of choice, and I find it tastes like berry iced tea when I mix the full serving size with 12 oz. of water.  For days when I know my workout won’t be as intense, I’ll only use half a scoop in half the amount of water.

Sugar-free, açai-berry

Not too long ago, a sugar-free form of the Pre-Workout Energizer was introduced, in the same two flavours as the regular version, and also available in single-serve packets and 30-serving canisters.  I noticed that this new version was priced lower than the original ($1.69 vs. $2.49 for the singles; prices vary per retailer), so I picked up singles of both flavours to try.

Both versions contain lots of organic and high-quality energy-boosting ingredients, including yerba mate and green teas, medium-chain triglycerides from coconut oil, and pain-reducing herbal ingredients like turmeric.  (Note – due to its turmeric content, the product may stain your sports bottles if not washed or rinsed right away.)  The regular version also contains brown rice syrup as a source of sweetness as well as fast and sustained release carbohydrate.  The sugar-free version is sweetened with stevia leaf extract.

Here is my comparison for each version.

	Regular	Sugar-Free
Taste (mixed with 12 oz. water)	Like iced tea!	Stevia is pretty noticeable, flavour may be improved by a bit more water or blending with fruit (see below for a recipe idea)
Mixability	A little grainy, but otherwise good; give it a shake every now and then if you’ll take a while finishing it	Very smooth, perhaps due to lack of sugars to dissolve
Functionality	Great sustained energy, fast-acting, hydrating	Great sustained energy, fast-acting, hydrating
Packaging	Individual – a little hard to open, which may be annoying on-the-go Canister – the original canisters are a bit cumbersome to cart along in a gym bag, but not as big as the protein powder canisters; new smaller canisters are appearing on store shelves as stores sell off their older stock	Individual – easier to open, with tear-off notches; smaller packets that are slightly larger than the Electrolyte Hydrator packets Canister – these are the new much smaller ones, very portable
Unwelcome side effects	May cause mild jitters and the need to go to the washroom, which can be disadvantageous in the middle of a workout; try drinking it slowly over the course of half an hour, about 20-30 minutes before exercise, or using half the serving size	May cause mild jitters and a stronger need to go to the washroom than the original; same recommendation, or stick with the regular product
May be ideal for	Endurance exercise, high-energy cardio, workouts that burn lots of calories	People who are watching their sugar intake while wanting the energy to get a great workout

Overall, I love the Pre-Workout Energizer, and use it as an additional, quick and portable option for my workouts.  Though I also love pretty much all the Vega Sport products, I have to admit that I am honestly not as much a fan of the sugar-free product, but perhaps that is the result of being accustomed to the flavour of the regular product.  I tried it again recently, blending it in a smoothie instead of straight:

My PWE smoothie.

- 1 organic pear
- ½ scoop unflavoured hemp protein powder
- 1 packet/scoop sugar-free açai-berry Vega Sport Pre-Workout Energizer
- 12 oz. (1½ cups) water
- 4 ice cubes
Seed and dice the pear.  Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth.  Drink immediately.  Variation: replace the pear with a banana.

I did find that blending the product into a pre-workout smoothie helped the flavour.  Doing so on a regular basis, however, would probably negate any money saved by buying the cheaper sugar-free product.

Overall, if you're very busy and need a pre-workout energy solution that is portable and easy-to-consume, I highly recommend the Vega Sport line.  Choose whichever one is right for you.  

For those who like to plan ahead, and to save money, you can try to make your own simplified version to keep in your fridge:

- 1 Tbsp. organic yerba mate loose-leaf tea
- 4 cups hot water
- 2 tsp. raw honey or maple syrup
- a pitcher with lots of ice
- juice of 1 fresh lemon
Brew the loose-leaf tea in the hot water.  Add the raw honey (if using) to the steeping tea so it dissolves completely.  Steep about 15 minutes and remove or strain out the tea leaves, pouring the hot water into the pitcher filled with ice.  (This is the flash-chill method to make iced tea.  Alternatively, place the pitcher of freshly steeped tea in the fridge for several hours until cold.)  Stir and add more ice if needed until cold.  Squeeze the lemon juice into the pitcher.  Makes about 4-6 cups of iced tea, depending on how much ice you use.  Drink 1 cup as needed about half an hour before exercise.  Also great to improve alertness and focus throughout the day.

Now go and get the best out of your workout!

The advice in this article is not meant to replace the advice of your doctor or health professional.  Use caution when adding new supplements to your health regimen.  Vega Sport supplements are generally not recommended for women who are pregnant or nursing, or for people under 18 years of age.  Always read the labels for product-specific contraindications.  Product info is also available online at http://myvega.com/.  I am not affiliated with the supplement company mentioned in this post and receive no compensation for my review.