Halloween Candy

Halloween is around the corner and it is my all time favorite holiday. I don’t really care about the candy; it’s more about the seasons changing, pumpkins, costumes, and just nostalgia. We had an early Halloween celebration with my family in Disneyland, we all dressed up as characters from Star Wars and trick or treated through out the park and it was awesome, but enough about my trip and back to Halloween.

I will never forget this conversation. Last year while in the candy aisle getting items for my referral girls I overheard some commotion. An older woman was getting very upset with a Target employee because they did not have a large enough section of sugar-free Halloween candy. She continued to stomp around the aisle raising her voice about what she was going to give her diabetic grandson. Listening and feeling a bit sorry for the employee I intervened.

“Excuse me ma’am, I couldn’t help, but over hear your conversation” I said. She looked at me a little embarrassed, but still upset. I explained to her that I have diabetes and I understand why she is upset, however, I then went on to explain to her that just because something is sugar free does not mean it is carb free which is what diabetics give themselves insulin for. So, even though sugar-free may help some, you would still have to watch how many pieces you ate and give yourself insulin to cover what you did eat. She looked at me befuddled and said she had no idea and grabbed a bag of regular snickers and stomped away.

I had a slight hint of annoyance that the woman threw such a fit, and after learning it was for nothing she never even bothered to apologize to the employee. It just goes to show that there are so many people who have no idea what diabetes really is and how to treat it and it’s extremely frustrating. We need to educate ourselves whether we have diabetes or not, because in reality Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes is becoming an epidemic here in the US and we need to understand it in order to treat it. That’s my small rant and Happy Halloween everyone!!!