Halloween + Diabetes

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! I love Halloween -the costumes, the candy, decorating the house, parties, and carving pumpkins- these are all great things. But most of all, I love to go trick-or-treating with my friends. I mean, who doesn't love getting free candy?

This will be my first Halloween with diabetes, but I'm not really concerned about that. As long as I can still eat some candy, I'll be happy!

I think that the best thing about getting all of these sweets is that you can use them as low treatments for the next couple of months! Think about the wonderful taste of bubbly, delicious chocolate exploding in your mouth. Mmmmm....! It almost makes me want to be low... almost. 

Moving on! I'm going to tell you right now, there will be at least one person on Halloween night that sees you eating a candy bar and lectures you about it. It is most likely because they are thinking of Type 2 Diabetes, not Type 1. They probably don't even know that Type 1 exists!

I know that it is annoying when people make assumptions about what we can and cannot eat, but let's be serious. I didn't even know what Type 1 was until I was diagnosed!

Anyways, the best way to deal with this is, instead of getting angry at the person, educate them on the disease so that it doesn't happen again. For example:

Uneducated person sees you eating chocolate: "Hey, can you be eating candy? I thought that diabetics can't have sugar."

You: "Actually, I can have whatever I want. You're thinking about Type 2 Diabetes, I have Type 1. As long as I know how many carbs are in what I eat, and I take enough insulin for it, I could eat sweets all day. But I don't do that because only heaven know's what it would do to my figure!"

Newly-educated person: "Oh, I didn't know that."

You: "No problem, common misconception." 

~Fin~

Speaking of eating candy and carb counting, picture this:

You have a craving for a kit-kat bar, and you've done a lot of walking while trick-or-treating, so you deserve it! You reach into your candy bag, pull out the delicious chocolate bar, open it and move it closer to your mouth... it's almost there when suddenly you remember that you have diabetes and need to check the carb count.

You search the bar for the nutrition information when you come across the most aggravating sentence in a Type 1 Diabetic's life:

For full nutrition information, please visit our website.

Well, I feel like that is just inconvenient. So, I have made a list of my favourite candies/chocolates ad their carb counts for you to use!

One 3 Musketeers bar... 46 carbs

1 mini-size Aero bar... 5 carbs

1 big Airheads bar... 14 carbs

1 mini size Airheads bar... 11 carbs

1 Baby Ruth bar... 37 carbs 

6 pieces of Bit-o-Honey... 38 carbs

1 regular Blow Pop... 16 carbs

1 super size Blow Pop... 34 carbs

1 fun-sized Butterfinger... 15 carbs

1 mini-size Butterfinger... 7.25 carbs

15 pieces candy corn... 15 carbs

1 Dum Dum sucker... 7 carbs

11 Gummy Bears... 30 carbs

1 Heath bar... 25 carbs

1 Hershey's Kiss... 8 carbs

1 Hershey's Almond Kiss... 2 carbs

1 small pack Hot Tamales... 12 carbs

1 Jolly Rancher... 6 carbs

1 1.5oz Kit Kat bar... 26 carbs

1 fun-size Kit Kat bar... 10 carbs

1 mini-size Kit Kar bar... 5 carbs

10 plain M&Ms... 5 carbs

6 peanut M&Ms... 7.5 carbs

1 small box Mike and Ike... 12 carbs

1 2.15oz Milky Way bar... 43 carbs

1 fun-size Milky Way bar... 12 carbs

1 mini-size Milky Way bar... 5 carbs

1 small box Nerds... 14 carbs

1 1.5oz Nestle Crunch bar... 28 carbs

1 fun-sized Nestle Crunch bar...7 carbs

1 mini-sized Nestle Crunch bar... 7 carbs

2 cups Reece's PB Cups... 18 carbs

1 snack-size Reece's PB Cups... 10 carbs

15 Skittles... 15 carbs

1 roll Smarties... 6 carbs

1 2.07oz Snickers bar... 36 carbs

1 fun-size Snickers bar... 10 carbs

2 Starbursts... 8.5 carbs

1 Tootsie Pop... 16 carbs

1 Tootsie Roll... 10 carbs

2 Twix cookies... 37 carbs

1 fun-sized Twix... 10 carbs

1 mini-size Twix... 6.6 carbs

1 piece Twizzlers... 8 carbs

Whew! That's a lot of candy! Talk about free low supplies!

One last thing; if you can't find a costume to wear for tonight, then here's a list of 3 easy costumes that you can create with things commonly found around the house:

1. A Teacher's Pet

You will need a checkered shirt, a vest, dress pants, nice shoes, and a school backpack. Wear the pants, vest, checkered shirt and shoes, and collect candy in the backpack!

2.A Business Man/Woman

You will need a nice black coat, black dress pants or a tight black skirt, a white button up shirt, a black tie, a pen, and a briefcase, and nice black boots/shoes. Wear the the white shirt tucked into you skirt/pants, the tie on top of that, and the coat on top that. Wear the pen behind your ear, and collect candy in the briefcase!

3. A Lazy Person

You will need fuzzy pajamas, a bath robe, hair curlers, slippers and a pillow case. Wear the PJs under the bath robe, put your hair in the curlers, walk around in the slippers and collect candy in the pillowcase!

Hope you have a great Halloween Diabetes Warriors! 

Thanks for reading this week's post of That Stupid Pancreas!


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Today's  question of the day is...

What is your favourite type of chocolate? Mine is an Aero bar. Comment the answer down below!!!