Halloween is fast approaching, which means all of your favorite sweets are suddenly available in fun-sized packages. More good news: If you’ve been maintaining a healthy diet, there’s no reason to worry that you’ll end up throwing all your hard-earned work out the window just because the candy’s arrived.
Here, we explore healthier candy options for lovers of all candy varieties. Plus, we’ve got tips on how to make this Halloween accessible and enjoyable for all the trick-or-treaters who might come to your door.
The Good Stuff
Reach for the Gobstoppers if you’re craving sweets. Why? The hard candy coating prevents you from eating Gobstoppers too quickly. And, with only 60 calories per fun-size box of Everlasting Gobstoppers and just 14 grams of sugar, chances are your need for something tangy will be met long before you have a chance to eat too many of these colorful little spheres.
Three of these mini chocolate bars have just over 70 calories a serving and contain just over 11 grams of sugar thanks to the absence of nuts and caramel, which means you can satisfy your craving for a milk chocolate-coated fluffy nougat-filled Halloween treat guilt free.
Mike and Ike candies (which, let’s be honest, are way better than regular old jelly beans) are a pleasant surprise on this list. These flavor-packed pouches contain chewy goodness that’s made with real fruit juice and they contain only 50 calories and 9 grams of sugar per serving.
Three mini Tootsie Rolls (half a serving size) come to a little over 70 calories, leaving you enough room to indulge in some of your other childhood Halloween favorites, unless you decide you just want to go for three more of these gluten-free treats.
Jolly Ranchers pack a ton of intense fruit flavor in for their size, and with three individual candies totaling just 70 calories, there’s no reason not to make this candy a permanent Halloween tradition.
The One Candy You Should Avoid
Even though fun-sized Halloween Starbursts come in packets of two, the serving size is actually four of these packs—or eight individual Starbursts. Surpassing all the other calories counts on this list, a serving of Starbursts has 160 calories and a whopping 22 grams of sugar.
If you do decide to indulge, aim for a single pack instead of a whole serving size!
Halloween Treats, All Grown Up
You’re an adult with sophisticated tastes, right? Right! Save these sweet treats for at-home Halloween celebrations meant for the older trick-or-treaters in your crowd.
Good quality dark chocolate (the kind with at least 72 percent cocoa solids) has plenty of proven nutritional benefits and it’s also a fantastic sweet treat! Sample several different kinds of dark chocolate at once and discover a new favorite.
Candied citrus peel looks especially chic when served on a platter alongside fresh fruit and a ramekin full of melted chocolate for dipping.
The Teal Pumpkin Project
The Teal Pumpkin Project’s goal is to make Halloween an enjoyable experience for everyone, including kids who have food allergies. As someone with a peanut allergy, I would have loved this when I was little! Houses that are supporting the Teal Pumpkin Project are easy to spot because they’ll have a teal pumpkin in plain view. Project participants are encouraged to hand out fun non-food items like stickers, pencil erasers, glow sticks, and other Halloween-themed toys.
Check out more Halloween candy alternatives that we’ve curated for Teal Pumpkin Project and health conscious households.
