Sugar & The Switch Witch

Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are, hands down, my favorite holidays of the year. I love the many origins of both of these holidays, as they acknowledge a realm beyond what we operate in on a day to day basis. The idea that we can appreciate and learn from our ancestors, as well as (& most importantly), be reminded that this life is so short is really meaningful to me.

I also LOVE any excuse to eat treats and get dressed up in costume!

While everyone in the health and wellness space is talking about how to deal with the influx of highly processed sugar via trick or treating, I want to both educate about sugar from the Chinese medicine model, as well as share how we deal with Halloween candy at our house. (Read on to learn about the Switch Witch).

Sugar is a yang substance, which means it’s going to raise our yang energy, which requires the support of our yin.

In a person with plenty of resources (qi, blood, mediumship, no chronic health conditions, infertility, migraines, autoimmune disease, etc), this doesn’t pose a problem. But in a person who has the afore mentioned health concerns, their yin (or mediumship) is already weakened or deficient, as we are prone to say in Chinese medicine. In order to heal these conditions, we need to build mediumship through our lifestyle, diet, and acupuncture, so food or activity that raises our yang energy is going to be far more detrimental for those of us already struggling with these issues.

In addition, even though there are an increasing number of healthier alternatives to traditional Halloween candy, generally speaking, trick or treating means an influx of candy with preservatives, additives, food dyes, and who knows what else. Because these things are not recognizable by the body as food, we are calling upon our divergent channels to hold this literal junk in latency, which it can do—if it has enough mediumship.

But again, for those of us experiencing the struggles of chronic disease, we already know that our mediumship is on shaky ground, so we have to (unfortunately) be more selective about what we ask our bodies to handle.

Re: kids, they are by nature, more yang than adults. They grow fast, they move fast, and this is natural. But by understanding the points above, we can see how frequently eating yang food over time, lends itself to poor health in our kids, which is exactly what we’re seeing in America, as well as in other countries who have adopted the Standard American Diet (SAD).

As Lisa Leak points out in 100 Days of Real Food, which has really become a movement, sugary food has become so commonplace that it’s hardly a “treat” or something done in moderation anymore. Sugary breakfast cereal is the norm in America; school lunches are less than desirable; children’s drinks are full of sugar; someone is always bringing cupcakes or cake to school for a birthday. If you’re looking for a down to earth, doable guide to helping your family switch to a real food, minimally processed food diet, 100 Days of Real Food is a great way to get started, because it began as a blog about her family’s own transition to real food after reading a book that opened her eyes to the many negative aspects of the food industry.

So what do we do in our house at Halloween?

We trick or treat and basically allow our kid to eat whatever she wants while trick or treating; because she’s still young, we don’t have years of experience in this just yet, but so far, both with trick or treating and with eating treats, in general, like at birthday parties, etc., she does a pretty good job of self-regulating and often moderates herself well.

At bedtime on Halloween, all the candy gets left in the kitchen, and overnight, the Switch Witch visits our house. The Switch Witch takes all of the candy with her and leaves a small treasure in its place; this may be a book, a stuffy, a toy, craft, etc. So far, with this compromise, the magic of Halloween is able to live on in our house without destroying our teeth, brains, or bodies. Let me know if the Switch Witch comes to your house and/or how you handle Halloween.