A set of helpful tips and recipes to help children and their families survive Halloween has been launched today by child obesity experts MEND (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition…Do it!).

Approximately 25% of children aged 4-7 in the UK are overweight. If current trends continue, by 2020 20% of all boys and 34% of all girls will be obese. For overweight children trying to manage their weight, Halloween can be hard as the shops fill up with chocolate and ghoulish treats. The nights are also darker and colder making it harder for us to be more active and burn off any excess energy we eat. For most of us the odd ‘trick or treat’ is enough to keep us happy over Halloween but it can be really tempting to eat more. MEND’s Halloween hints are designed to equip families with ideas to help stop Halloween becoming the wrong sort of nightmare!!

MEND suggests:

• It’s fun and active to go out ‘trick or treating’ but what to do when your children come home with armfuls of sweets?  A good idea is to let the children select a few of their favourite sweets, the rest of the sweets can be placed in the ‘magic pumpkin’ overnight the magic pumpkin transforms them into a small toy. The magic pumpkin can donate the sweets to a local charity or food bank. If you can’t afford a toy what about a token ‘I owe you 1 hour playing football down the park’ – would help burn off the energy from the sweets they eat too!
• Michael Jackson’s thriller will be heard everywhere this Halloween, get the family to dress up and do the zombie dance
• Creepy edible eyeballs - Slice a carrot into small chunks, top each with a blob of half-fat cream cheese and one half of a pitted black olive, wicked.
• Get active by playing ‘zombie bride’. Teams have to run around with loo paper and turn a member of the family into a bride or mummy
• For something different, why not paint the shell of a boiled egg so it looks like a giant eyeball or dye them bogey green · After eating an orange cut the skin into freaky teeth – this will be fun and encourages children to eat more fruit
• Hang apples from a string and with your hands behind your back race to see who can have the first bite
• Turn an orange into a mini lantern – cut off the top like a lid, scoop out the flesh and cut out a mouth and eyes. Refill with chopped orange and mix in some more fruit. Kids will love these scary treats.

MEND Recipe ideas

Some simple winter warmer recipes ideas for the whole family to enjoy

Hot Apple cider:

2 Litres Apple Juice (cloudy is preferable)

2 cinnamon sticks

2 whole cloves

2 allspice berries or whole nutmeg ½ orange peel, cut into strips

½ lemon peel, cut into strips

1. Pour juice into a large pot

2. Place spices and peels into a cheesecloth. Drop into apple juice.

3. Heat to just short of a boil. Continue to heat for 2 hours.

4. Remove cheesecloth. Serve warm in mugs or glasses, straight from the pot.

Butternut Squash Soup

Simply replace the butternut squash with pumpkin if you have lots left over from making you Halloween lanterns

1 onion

1 clove garlic

1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut in squares

1 tbsp Olive Oil 290ml of boiling water and low-sodium stock cube

2-3 tbsp of low-fat natural yoghurt

½ tsp of ground ginger

Black pepper to taste

Sauté diced squash, onion and garlic for a few minutes in olive oil. Add water and stock cube and ground ginger simmer for 15 minutes. Blend soup, season to taste with black pepper. Serve with a spoonful of yoghurt.