Trade your holiday sugar for healthy snack choices | Arizona Sugar Swap 11/4

This post is sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. All opinions are my own.

It’s been a busy week but I’m happy Halloween is behind us. We had many different DIY costumes being made, parties to attend and treats to bake. Now I’m playing catch up in my office where I’ve also hidden the massive amounts of candy collected by my daughters while they were out trick or treating with neighborhood friends. My girls are very active and eat well balanced intentional meals at home but given the opportunity, they both would happily eat their way through this entire stash of candy. Luckily Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona’s  Nourishing Arizona Homegrown Healthy campaign is making it easy to trade all that candy to exchange for fresh fruits and vegetables of your choice at the Sugar Swap this weekend. They are hosting a booth at the Uptown Farmer’s Market Saturday, November 4th 9:00 – 1:00 where you can exchange your sugary sweets for a voucher to purchase $5 worth of fresh fruits and veggies at the onsite market full of fresh produce options. Sugary sweets with more than seven grams of sugar will get you $5 in Homegrown Healthy Bucks, the vouchers to shop the market for much healthier snack choices for your family.

This year my oldest daughter dressed in a DIY Mermaid Costume to trick or treat while her little sister wore a macaroni penguin costume we had made years ago and then passed down because she’s currently the perfect size for big sister’s recycled costumes.

Every year I vow to make sure my daughter’s don’t have access to all their trick or treating candy but then never do anything more than tossing it out to avoid sugar binges during family movie nights. This year we are making an impact and trading the sugary treats for vouchers to let our daughters select fresh fruit and vegetables instead. Little sister is going to have so much fun feeling empowered to make her own food choices this weekend at the Sugar Swap.

We make a great effort to guarantee our daughters have access to healthy snacks at home but when they are away from us, it’s important for them to be able to make their own smart food choices.

Our daughters know the difference between the sugar in treats and the healthy sugars found in fruits and vegetables. They also know the importance of making smart choices for our health. Almost 600,000 people in Arizona have diabetes and 65% of Arizonans are overweight or obese. Sugar accounts for much of the empty calories consumed by teenagers and has very serious negative health consequences if not consumed responsibly. Side effects can include diabetes, blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, strokes and more. Living an active lifestyle certainly helps your child’s metabolism but teaching how to make smart food choices are lifelong skills that will make a difference in their overall health and life expectancy.

The Nourishing Arizona Homegrown Healthy campaign is helping to educate Arizonans on the dangers of sugar consumption and the need for teaching your children how to make healthy food choices.

Sugar Swap

What: Swap sugary treats in exchange for $5 in fruits and veggies

When: November 4, 2017 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Where: Uptown Farmer’s Market

           5757 North Central Avenue (Central & Bethany Home Road)

Our family’s Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf costumes were just one of the many different DIY costumes we made for the Halloween festivities last month. They were adorable and resulted in way too much candy. We’ll be at the Sugar Swap this weekend to trade in our buckets for healthy sugar found in fresh fruits and veggies instead.

Family trick or treating was fun but let’s all help our children learn to make food choices that will positively benefit their overall health.

Learn more about Nourishing Arizona by connecting with them on Facebook and Twitter.