Ten of the most popular Halloween candies, read off the labels at 10 a.m. on Halloween morning and out the same afternoon. The whole night comes down to two numbers on every wrapper — how much sugar hits right away, and how much fat delays it — plus the one question Scott asks of every candy: is this a good low treat, or not?
No carb ratio and no estimator run — this one is a label-reading marathon. Every figure below is what Scott read off the package on the recording, and protein wasn't read for any of them. Bring your own ratio; what transfers is the sugar-versus-fat read on each candy and what to do with it. 3:38
Scott in a Bride of Frankenstein wig, Jenny with a Bride of Frankenstein painted on her pod. Scott asked ChatGPT for the ten most popular Halloween candies and pulled every label from Amazon so he could read the panel.
Six labels with fat on them. The fat is why chocolate doesn't fix a low, and why the hit stretches out longer than people expect from candy.
Two numbers on every wrapper. How much sugar you're going to get hit with right away, and how much fat is going to delay that hit. Everything in this section has enough fat to slow the sugar — which is a strategy question when you're eating it, and a hazard when you're low.
Kids don't walk the neighborhood — they fly from house to house and run up the hill. Jenny's point: a fun-size Snickers or one peanut butter cup eaten while you're moving like that can very likely go in with no bolus and no impact. Scott's version, from before he had a podcast or an algorithm: treat the running around like the pre-bolus for what comes out of the bag, watch the number, and when it starts to do something, that's when you reach in.
Jenny weighs her boys' bags when they get home. She also buys the candy back from them.
Not on the list, but somebody's neighbor is making them by the fire pit. Scott adds up the marshmallow and the Hershey bar before he even gets to the graham cracker.
Graham crackers are the devil. Scott's words. Put the three parts together and a single s'more is a bigger bolus than most of the candy on this page.
Little or no fat, so nothing delays the hit. These are the ones that need a long pre-bolus and a falling blood sugar before you start — and the ones that go in the low pile.
These are the low pile. Skittles by the gram, Smarties by the roll. Scott's word for candy corn applies to all of them: rocket fuel.
Why Smarties work like glucose tabs, why you hold the sugar in your mouth, and what a good Halloween looks like on the CGM.
Scott's wrap for the newly diagnosed parent who is dreading tonight. Treat the running around like the pre-bolus for what comes out of the bag, and just make it through. If you sit down later and work through a pile of it, account for what it is: a lot of carbs, fat in some of it, a hard hit from the simple sugars and a stretched-out one from the fat. The goal is no bad low and no protracted high — not a 300 overnight, and not a kid running around unbolused and dropping. Get through the night without either, and have a good time.
Jenny's note on how much has changed: when Arden was small, Scott watched her blood sugar and told her when she could reach into the bag — he was the algorithm. Now the systems do a lot of that. Jenny started her own DIY system on a Halloween, years ago.
The wrapper math that transfers to every bag of candy.
“If you want the chocolate, eat the chocolate. Bolus for it, but don't use it for a low.”
“It's about how much sugar you're going to get hit with right away and how much fat is going to delay that hit.”
“I think if you can get through this night without a bad low or a protracted high, I think have a good time.”
“Dextrose is the simplest form of sugar, so your body really can absorb it.”
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