--- title: This Is the Healthiest Time to Eat Your Halloween Candy description: We asked registered dietitian Christy Brissette when you should eat your Halloween candy to stay healthy. canonical: https://time.com/4998824/healthy-halloween-candy-sugar/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-31T16:24:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:00:53.155Z article:section: Health og:title: This Is the Healthiest Time to Eat Your Halloween Candy og:description: It may surprise you og:url: https://time.com/4998824/healthy-halloween-candy-sugar/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4856be8ab71880f/6988e38b4ee26247fd30f8cb/halloween-candy-nutrition.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Hershey Co. Products Ahead Of Earnings og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is the Healthiest Time to Eat Your Halloween Candy twitter:description: It may surprise you twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4856be8ab71880f/6988e38b4ee26247fd30f8cb/halloween-candy-nutrition.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is the Healthiest Time to Eat Your Halloween Candy > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Jamie Ducharme / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Jamie Ducharme / Health.com Contributor Oct 31, 2017 4:24 PM UTC  Various Hershey Co. chocolate candies are arranged for a photograph in a bowl in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., on Tuesday, July 28, 2015\. The Hershey Co. is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Friday, Aug. 7, 2015\. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images Various Hershey Co. chocolate candies are arranged for a photograph in a bowl in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., on Tuesday, July 28, 2015\. The Hershey Co. is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Friday, Aug. 7, 2015\. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images Getty Images by [Jamie Ducharme / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Jamie Ducharme / Health.com Contributor Oct 31, 2017 4:24 PM UTC During [Halloween](http://time.com/4971340/what-is-halloween-questions/) season, there’s no shortage of candy at your fingertips. It’s everywhere: in your office, your house and every supermarket and drugstore. With temptation all around, it can be easy to graze on sweets all day long. Instead, though, it’s possible to indulge strategically. The first rule: don’t ever eat candy by itself, says [Christy Brissette](http://www.80twentynutrition.com), a Toronto-based registered dietitian. “You want to have something with some protein and some healthy fat and fiber before you have anything that has simple sugars.” Eating more substantial food before candy helps slow the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream, she explains, which in turn helps protect levels of blood-sugar-regulating insulin from spiking and then crashing. That’s important, Brissette says, because research suggests that [high insulin levels may be linked with obesity](http://time.com/3687808/this-is-the-number-1-driver-of-diabetes-and-obesity/), Type 2 diabetes and even some types of cancer. Pairing candy with real food is a must. But Brissette says there’s also an even better way to minimize the damage of a trick-or-treat haul: pop a couple of pieces of Halloween candy with a post-workout protein shake. “After a workout, your cells are basically looking to replenish themselves,” she says. Physical activity burns through glycogen—a stored form of glucose—”and you can quickly replace that by having more of a fast-absorbing sugar,” Brissette says. “You want to have that together with some protein that’s going to help rebuild and repair any muscle tearing that happened during the exercise.” _This_ [_article_](http://www.health.com/nutrition/halloween-candy-sugar/?xid=time) _originally appeared on_ [_Health.com_](http://health.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4998824/healthy-halloween-candy-sugar/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4998824/healthy-halloween-candy-sugar/"},"headline":"This Is the Healthiest Time to Eat Your Halloween Candy","datePublished":"2017-10-31T16:24:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:00:53.155Z","description":"It may surprise you","url":"https://time.com/4998824/healthy-halloween-candy-sugar/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Candy","halloween","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4856be8ab71880f/6988e38b4ee26247fd30f8cb/halloween-candy-nutrition.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme / Health.com"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4856be8ab71880f/6988e38b4ee26247fd30f8cb/halloween-candy-nutrition.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hershey Co. 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