This Halloween, kids all over the nation will be exposed to candy and all the health problems it entails, but there are ways to circumvent the cavities and sugar rushes.

New research seems to have explained why children are so drawn to sweet candy and opposed to bitter-tasting foods. Because a person does not lose or gain taste buds as they get older, they are more compact on a small tongue, meaning the taste of any food is magnified, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"Children have the same number of taste buds as adults, but their tongue is a whole lot smaller, so the flavors are more intense the younger you are," Brian Wansink, director of Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab, said. "That's why little kids don't like bitter foods and really like sweet foods. The effect is magnified."

The consumption of candy on Halloween is not what has experts worried, but rather the large collection that will stick around the house for weeks afterward.

"One day in the life of a child is not going to ruin them," said Jonathan Shenkin, a pediatric dentist in Augusta, Maine, and a spokesman for the American Dental Association. "We are worried about the next three or four weeks of their candy-eating life, especially if they are a good hoarder."

There are healthy alternatives, like candy exchanges. Several local dentists and other groups are organizing a trade-in program that gives children and their families cash and other prizes for Halloween candy.

For example, in a St. Louis county, each pound of unopened candy gets a donor a raffle ticket for the chance to win an Xbox One gift package and other prizes, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

According to the Canadian Press, an Ontario dentist is offering one dollar for every pound turned in of unopened candy.

Dr. John's Candies, a Michigan company, is offering a pound-for-pound swap of Halloween candy for sugar-free alternatives, according to a press release.

Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at Benioff Children's Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco, told the Journal avoidance of candy can help children avoid problems like diabetes and liver disease later in life.

"There is absolutely no question that sugar induces tolerance," he said. "The more you eat, the more you need to get the same reward-that deep, visceral response that says, 'things are good.'"