If you are looking for the perfect Halloween candy, keep looking!  Fighting those Halloween candy cravings can be tough. Do you know that kids get sick more often after Easter and Halloween?  Why? Processed sugar curbs the immune system cells that attack bad bacteria.  In fact, according to a recent study from Loma Linda University, it was observed that sugar literally slows down the growth of white blood cells for up to two hours after consumption.  FYI: Unless you are a fruitarian, this is NOT true when eating fresh fruit due to the enzymes, vitamins minerals, and fiber!

Halloween is prime time for binging on candy, not only for yoru kids but for the parents too! But why is sugar so detrimental to your weight loss journey?
Photo Credit:  iKids TV.

Why is weight loss during Halloween slow or difficult?

When on the Breakthrough M2 weight loss program, the consumption of sugar comes from fresh fruits and vegetables only.  We know that any excess processed sugar will thwart anyone’s weight-loss – period.  This is why it so difficult to experience weight loss during Halloween and any other holiday, for that matter. We have seen people’s weight loss slow down from 1-3 days after having a cheat with processed sugar.

Beating Halloween Candy Cravings – Minding Your Sugar Intake

One thing we can do is get in the habit of reading food labels.  And not just the amount of sugar per serving, but read the ingredient list, too.  But, that’s an interesting dilemma!  Because let’s think about our food labels. The main piece of data we look at on a label is calories.  When we think about calories being good or not for weight loss, many of us use quick comparisons to help us decide if we should eat all or some of the suggested serving size.  One of the most popular comparisons we use is the 100-calorie pack.  The number 100 is not a lot and we can visually see what a 100-calorie portion looks like.

The second piece of data that is important but not understandable by most of us is grams of sugar. But unless you are a science or math teacher most Americans do not know how much a gram is. Our food labels use the metric system.  Well, that’s annoying and not helpful!  If you see a label that says 20 grams per serving, you don’t automatically consider this to be an issue because 20 is WAY less than 100, so why not?  Besides, because we are so used to the idea of calories most of us think that grams and calories must resemble each other, right? Nope…

Here’s how to give yourself a quick idea of how grams of sugar can be understood.  Here’s a quick math problem:  One teaspoon of sugar is equal to four grams.  So, if there are 20 grams in a serving, divide 20 by 4 and you will get 5 teaspoons of sugar! If it is 1 gram of sugar divided by 4, then that is one-fourth teaspoon of sugar.

Favorite Halloween candy brands across the U.S. Picture credit: WJLA.com

Here are the top three most popular Halloween candy cravings: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – 36% , Snickers – 18%, M&M’s – 11%. There are 16 grams of sugar in one Reese’s PB cup. That equates to four teaspoons of sugar! There are 30 grams of sugar in one Snicker’s Bar. That is 7.5 teaspoons of sugar in one bar. There are 18 grams of sugar in 32 M & M’s, this means there are 4.5 teaspoons of sugar in one small handful of M & M’s.  I think we can understand why kids and adults are more likely to get sick around those two holidays.  And if we are taking days or weeks to finish all the candy, we are lowering our white blood cell count a little bit every day. And wait till you do that math problem on grams of sugar in soda!

There are lots of ways to cut down on processed sugar and be more aware of our intake. Cutting out fruit juices and artificial sweeteners is a great start.

Condiments and bottled salad dressings are a great hiding place for sugar.  At Breakthrough M2, we offer our clients all-natural ketchup that has stevia (an herb) and xylitol (derived from birch bark) from Nature’s Hollow.  We also have delicious sugar-free salad dressings that compliment our weight loss program that uses stevia, from Simple Girl. We also offer amazing flavored liquid stevia drops and water drops from the Sweet Leaf company.

Even though our clients are NOT allowed any processed sugar while on the Breakthrough M2 diet, they can look forward to being able to have a favorite dessert afterward.  But now, they are more educated about sugar and it’s effects on us and we hope you are too, now that you have read this!