Get Fit Friday Memo: Halloween Candy

For the most part, Halloween is for the kids. You dress them up, go house to house and end up with a TON of candy. And Saturday night (or Sunday morning……or all next week!) you may be tempted to dive into some of their sweet treats! Will they really miss one or seven pieces?!! Or maybe you bought an extra bag of candy all for yourself! However it happened….you’ve surrounded yourself with all kinds of tempting treats! Now I’m not going to spend this time telling you how to avoid candy or how to choose raisins or celery over the candy. That’s great if you do! But we all love a treat every now and then so let’s see which candy is the BEST choice!

Most experts agree that the biggest offenders are the candies that have no content: Candy made of pure sugar and no substance or food. Dark chocolate, nuts, coconut……these are all real foods and can at least provide a little protein and antioxidants. The other thing to think about it the calorie count and amount of sugar. Some candies seem similar but one may be a better option based on calories and sugar content. Below are some examples from Eat This, Not That and why they are or are not the best choice.

WORST “FUN SIZE” CANDY BAR:
Butterfinger

100 calories, 4 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 10 g sugar IT HAS MORE CALORIES THAN TWO BREYERS PURE FRUIT BERRY SWIRL POPSICLES! Many candy bars are high in sugar. Many are high in fat. But Butterfinger has magical ability to be high in both. Adding even one “fun size” Butterfinger to your food intake every day is enough to add more than 10 pounds to your body in the next year. There’s nothing fun about that.
EAT THIS INSTEAD:
3 Musketeers

63 calories, 2 g fat, 1.5 g saturated fat, 10 g sugar

WORST CLASSIC FRUIT CANDY:
Brach’s Airheads (3)

140 calories, 1.5 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 19 g sugar IT HAS MORE SUGAR AND CALORIES THAN ½ CUP OF EDY’S SLOW CHURNED MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP! Here’s the basic formula for an Airhead: Sugar and filler carbohydrates, artificial colors and flavors, and partially hydrogenated oils—the source of trans fat. Dum Dums might not be nutritional paragons, but they do have two noteworthy advantages over Airheads: 1. No heart-wrecking oils, and 2. They’re made from hard candy. That means they dissolve slowly on your tongue, letting you enjoy the sweetness over time and preventing you from feverishly tearing through Airheads.
EAT THIS INSTEAD:
Spangler Dum Dum Pops (3)

60 calories, 0 g fat, 11 g sugar

WORST MINIATURE CANDY BARS:
Twix Miniatures (3)

150 calories, 7 g fat, 4 g saturated, 15 g sugar IT HAS MORE CALORIES THAN TWO FUDGSICLE ORIGINAL FUDGE POPS! Twix has the worst saturated fat profile of any candy in your kid’s trick-or-treat bag. Think about it like this: Each serving of these bite-sized candies carries 20 percent of the saturated fat you should consume in an entire day. Switch to Tootsie Rolls and you’ll cut your calories by more than half and trim your total fat intake by a whopping 79 percent.
EAT THIS INSTEAD:
Tootsie Rolls (3)

70 calories, 1.5 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 9.5 g sugar

WORST MINT CANDY:
Junior Mints (1 fun size box)

76.5 calories, 1.35 g fat, 1.13 g saturated fat, 14.4 g sugar IT HAS AS MUCH SUGAR AS 3 CHIPS AHOY! CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES! Junior Mints are hard to resist because they’re poppable; you feel like you’re getting a lot because you get to enjoy them over and over until the box is gone. What you’re actually getting more of, though, is calories and sugar. Stick with Charlie Brown’s ambiguously gendered girlfriend, Peppermint Pattie, and cut your calories by a third. (Thirty calories may not seem like a lot, but that’s enough to add more than 3 pounds of flab every year to your fine frame.)
EAT THIS INSTEAD:
York Peppermint Pattie (1 snack size piece)

60 calories, 1 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 11 g sugar

WORST CHEWY FRUITY CANDY:
Skittles (fun size package)

60 calories, 0.6 g fat, 0.1 g saturated fat, 11.3 g sugar IT HAS MORE SUGAR THAN 3 KEEBLER SANDIES SIMPLY SHORTBREAD COOKIES! Repeat after me: If it’s your waist you want to whittle, keep your fingers off the Skittles. Sugar, corn syrup and food dye—that’s all you’re getting from a package of Skittles. Starburst cuts the sugar nearly in half by using apple juice concentrate to add extra sweetness and cut down on the corn.
EAT THIS INSTEAD:
Starburst (fun size w/ 2 pieces)

40 calories, 0.8 g fat, 0.1 g saturated fat, 6.7 g sugar

WORST PEANUT BUTTER CANDY: Reese’s miniatures (5)

220 calories, 13 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 23 g sugar IT HAS AS MANY CALORIES AS TWO CANS OF RED BULL—AND NEARLY SIX SUGAR PACKETS WORTH OF SUGAR! The American Heart Association says an adult woman should have no more than 25 grams of added sugar a day. Reese’s manages to pack almost that much into one serving of these miniatures. Maybe they should be called “maxiatures”?
EAT THIS INSTEAD:M&Ms Peanut Butter (2 packages)