Better Candy Choices for Halloween

Not only is Halloween candy bad for the kids, but it’s difficult for the adults to walk buy those childhood favorite treats as well.  Besides how bad can a miniature Snickers be?  Well it’s not just the calories, the increased sugar will also make you crave more carbs. It’s a vicious cycle.

There are better options available.  Mini-boxes of raisins, mini Quaker Chewy Granola bars or fun size packs of animal crackers or Teddy Grahams.  It goes without saying that organic options are also better to avoid the artificial flavor and coloring.

If you do allow your children to have some candy, take the time to compare the numbers.  For example, the Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins have 170 calories, 10 grams of fat and 16 grams of sugar (ouch!)  Buy Peanut M&M’s instead, since they have 90 calories, 5 grams of fat and 9 grams of sugar.  An even better choice is Hershey’s fun size bars which have 67 calories, 4 grams of fat and 8 grams of sugar.

• 3 Musketeers Minis have only 24 calories and 1g fat
• Milky Way minis have 38 calories, 1.5g fat
• 10 pieces of candy corn have 64 calories and 0g of fat
• One Tootsie roll has 26 calories, 0.5g fat
• Mini York peppermint patties has 50 calories and 1 g fat
• One Hershey’s kiss has 22 calories
• Dum-Dum Pops 2 have 51 calories, no fat, 10g sugar
• Skittles 1 fun size pack has 60 calories, 0.67g fat and 11g sugar

Another consideration is to keep the candy out of site or in hard to reach places after Halloween.  Give the kids a limit of only 2 per day.  Stock up on healthy snacks like apples, carrots and grapes, and make sure you include that before candy so they won’t be as hungry.