Halloween candies contain a variety of artificial, processed, unnatural ingredients. This is our list of the 10 worst offenders.
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From hydrogenated oils to corn syrup to artificial coloring, many candies contain more processed ingredients than not.
Beating out Easter and Valentine's Day, Halloween is the biggest candy-selling holiday of the year. Sugary treats and festive decorations begin to appear in supermarkets across the country before the thought of Halloween has even crossed our minds. Once those variety bags of candy start to line the shelves, the urge to consume the sugary confections we typically avoid all year long sets in. Maybe it starts as a midday pick-me-up after a long workweek, but you may quickly find yourself dipping your hand into the candy bowl a little too often. Once or twice isn't a crime, but more than that and you could risk stretching your waistline before Halloween even hits.
A healthy lifestyle isn't about depriving yourself, but rather making better choices when you do choose to indulge. Some candies contain more sugar than others, some more fat, and some are full of ingredients you simply can't pronounce, let alone identify. When Halloween rolls around, it's a good idea to know which candies will have you tipping the scales come November 1, and which won't. Halloween doesn't have to be a nutritional nightmare. With some preparation, you can enjoy the holiday and keep your diet on track as well.
To save you the time of reading the tiny nutrition facts on those fun-sized bars, we did a comparison of the most popular Halloween candies.
#1. 3 Musketeers
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These bars might be marketed as a "lighter" way to enjoy chocolate, but there's nothing light about them. Not only does one bar contain 240 calories, 36 grams of sugar, and five grams of saturated fat, it also contains trans fats hiding in the form of hydrogenated palm kernel oil.
#2. Sour Patch Kids
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One two-ounce box of Sour Patch Kids contains a stunning 36 grams of sugar and 140 calories. This is no surprise, considering the first three ingredients are sugar, invert sugar (a mixture of glucose and fructose), and corn syrup. The remaining ingredients include preservatives, like citric acid, and artificial colorings.
#3. Milky Way
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Fun-size bars are supposed to help keep calories and sugar intake in check, but that's not the case with these. Milky Way's caramel and nougat center has the fun size weighing in at 21 grams of sugar and the full size variety contains a whopping 31 grams of sugar. Not to mention, they're known to stick in your teeth, which can cause cavities. This 240-calorie treat has nine grams of fat, seven of which are saturated.
#4. Butterfingers
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One regular Butterfinger contain 275 calories, 29 grams of sugar, and 11 grams of fat, six of which are saturated. The first ingredient is corn syrup, followed by sugar, peanuts, and hydrogenated palm oil. It also contains a host of other artificial preservatives, like TBHQ, which is made up of phenol and butane (also known as lighter fluid).
#5. Snickers
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In addition to 27 grams of sugar, 250 calories, and 12 grams of fat, a Snickers bar contains an unhealthy dose of corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Eating corn syrup has been thought to lead to the development of metabolic syndrome, a pre-diabetic condition. Hydrogenated oil is proven to raise your LDL (bad) cholesterol, while lowering your HDL (good) cholesterol level.
Olivia Giordano,The Daily Meal
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