Halloween – a fun-filled evening with ghouls and goblins, fairytale princesses and Marvel action heroes, and a lot of sugar! At the end of an evening of trick-or-treating, many children can cover the whole top of a kitchen table with their take of candy. Luckily, Halloween only comes around once a year, and you can make sensible choices when choosing what types of candy to hand out by following these five tips:
- Buy fun-size or mini versions of the big candy bars for lower sugar content. For many fun-size versions, the average sugar content is between 7-11 grams per one fun-size piece. Also, choose dark chocolate over white/milk chocolate.
- Choose low-fat or no-fat options. One Nestle Crunch fun size has 60 calories and 3 grams of fat, while a 3 Musketeers fun size has 63 calories and 2 grams of fat. Fun- size Twizzlers, Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Pops, Dum Dum lollipops, Sweet Tarts, and Smarties contain no fat.
- Save your teeth. Avoid handing out sticky candy such as gummies, taffy and caramels.
- Look for the protein. Some chocolates that have some protein include PayDay fun size (3 grams of protein) and M&M’s peanut fun size (2 grams of protein).
- Moderation is key. As with any tempting foods, the key is moderation. Limit your child’s consumption to a few pieces each day following the big night.
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