Sweets at Halloween are they a Trick or a Treat?

Today is Halloween, a mini holiday day in the UK, where although we don't have a day off. People do celebrate in the night by taking little ones around to their neighbours and calling trick or treat at the front door. Or by dressing up and going to parties for fun activities such as bobbing for apples. The problem is that when you have diabetes, the treat part of Halloween can be a bit of a tricky situation with all that sugar and sweetness around.

As a seasoned diabetic or person with diabetes, I know that we can eat almost anything with the condition and that we just have to be careful. Also that everybody's diabetes is different. For me personally I have a couple of no go foods and beverages outside of the time whilst I'm having a hypo. I can't drink any sugary drinks, caramels and syrups are out and also large quantities of sugar at one time- such as the whole bags of sweets you might get whilst trick or treating.

I thought as I'd be blogging about it, that it would be interesting to look into where exactly halloween came from. And apparently it was a concept created by the Celts- of which the Welsh are descended from. Where by they believed that the 1st of November signified the end of the summer season and the start of the winter. They believed that before the first day of November ghosties and ghoulies would roam the earth. So they felt they needed to dress up in such costumes so as to fool the ghosts so they wouldn't be harmed.

Trick or treating apparently made it over to America and became the big event that it is today from where the Scottish and the English immigrated to the US. Initially in the UK people used to light turnips and celebrate, that then become pumpkins due to they're availability in the US. There was also a strong tradition of giving food as sacrifice to appease the spirits. That then developed into giving food to the poor and eventually treats to those that came a-knocking whilst dressed up.

When I was younger (pre-diabetes) I used to collect quite the hoard with my friends whilst trick or treating and it would contain all kinds of things from sweets to fruit and money. It was often so much that I couldn't eat it all at once- although I would give it a good go though.  I don't go trick or treating anymore, but what do you do if your children/ you do? I don't believe in having to miss out on fun just because of diabetes. So my suggestion would be to go trick or treating, have a little amount of candy on the night. And then save the rest for hypos and treats for a later date. It's a tricky situation but this way no one is missing out on halloween, but hopefully there won't be any frightening consequences blood sugar wise on the night!

Please remember not go out trick or treating alone, or without telling someone where you're going. Don't call on people who don't want to bothered and avoid giving tricks that will cause upset. Because Halloween is all about having safe fun not a scary time for you or anyone else!