The Average Child Consumes Over 3,500 Calories on Halloween

Our son Dylan had a blast yesterday. Watching him ring doorbells and say "Happy Halloween" was a thrill for both mommy and daddy. Did you know the average U.S. child collects between 3,500 and 7,000 calories from candy on Halloween night?  Donna Arnett, a public health expert and head of the department of epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health said, a 100-pound child who consumed 7,000 calories would have to walk for nearly 44 hours or play full-court basketball for 14.5 hours to burn those calories. Wow!

Fortunately Dylan did do allot of walking yesterday. First at the New Hartford Shopping Center and then through our North Utica neighborhood. And he wasn't the only one. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that there was 41 million trick-or-treaters ages 5 to 14 in America this year. Parents reportedly dropped $1 billion on children's costumes -- and if they were on trend, the most popular costumes were princess, witch, pirate or Spider-Man. As you can see, Dylan was a dragon, or was it a dinosaur?