Diarmaid Ferriter: Halloween’s sugar mountain part of a relentless cycle

The Irish Heart Foundation puts it simply: ‘Stop targeting children’

Sat, Nov 4, 2017, 05:00

Diarmaid Ferriter

Halloween bounty: 45 chocolate bars, 10 packets of chocolate buttons, 17 packets of jellies . . . Photograph: Getty

Halloween bounty: 45 chocolate bars, 10 packets of chocolate buttons, 17 packets of jellies . . . Photograph: Getty

The youngest tipped over the pillowcase. Time to count the bounty. Here we go: 45 chocolate bars, 10 packets of chocolate buttons, 17 packets of jellies, 15 small boxes – a mixture of Smarties, M&Ms and Maltesers – six lollipops, four packets of crisps and numerous stray, chewy sweets. An avalanche of treats, and she didn’t perform a trick at any of the doors she called to.

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