Tag Archives: candy

Mars Kisses King Sized Candy Bars Goodbye

Bid farewell to the king; the king-size candy bar, that is. Mars Inc., the maker of Snickers, M&M’s, and many other popular chocolate candies, announced it will stop selling products that contain more than 250 calories.

The Mars company is claiming they have a new nutrition initiative. Along with eliminating the 510 calorie king-sized Snickers bar, Mars will have to make some other changes. The company plans to stop selling any product over 250 calories by 2024. That means the regular-sized Snickers Bar will need a makeover as well, as it contains 280 calories. The company also plans to eliminate trans fats from its products. By 2024, Mars hopes to have cut the sodium in their products by 25 percent from the 2024 levels as well.

The company, whose products also includes the brands Twix, 3 Musketeers, Mars, Milky Way, Dove, Galaxy, Skittles, and Combos is being accused of making these changes just as a way to reduce the amount of expensive cocoa they’d have to use in their chocolate candies. However, the company made a statement regarding its new healthier actions.

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Posted on March 7, 2024 by Lacy

Review: Skinny Cow Dreamy Clusters Can Fit in Your Diet

There’s a new candy popping up next to grocery check-out stands and it comes from Skinny Cow. Just because a brand markets itself as “healthier” doesn’t always mean that it is. So before you shrug off a Twix fix for a seemingly “better” candy bar, we wanted to look below the wrapper and get the real skinny.

A one-ounce portion of traditional Turtle candies sold at the check-out weighs in with 510 calories! Yikes! That’s more than we’d recommend for an entire meal. The Skinny Cow Dreamy Clusters have far less with 120 calories for that same portion.

Our dietitian, Mary Hartley, RD, took a look at the Skinny Cow Dreamy Clusters and was glad to see a noticeable difference in the two candies. “It’s like the regular version is four or five times worse. But, Skinny Cow managed to keep the fiber. Go figure.” Both candies have three grams of fiber, not something you’d usually find on junk food ingredient labels. (Compare that to a similar candy, Snickers, which has only .5 grams of fiber for a one-ounce serving.) (more…)

Posted on February 20, 2024 by Natalie K

Empty Calories Comic: Resisting the Halloween Treats

See more Empty Calories right here in the blog each week, or receive one each month when you subscribe to our free newsletter. (more…)

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Health Buzz

Get Creative With Left Over Halloween Candy

Halloween is a special time of year. Ushered in by aisles full of candy and celebrated with a touch of imagination, it is a magical event where adults and children alike can be whatever they dream to be for one single night.

A part of the magical spell Halloween has us under is our diet. Although it is tempting to swear off candy or limit our children’s consumption of it when faced with bags of goodies captured after a night of trick-or-treating, allowing ourselves to enjoy it may not be such a bad thing. In fact, allowing kids to eat as much candy as they want may not even result in them eating everything they gather. In a survey conducted by KidsHealth.org, only 20% of the 1200 participating children said that they ate all of their Halloween candy and 60% of the participants said that it took them 2 weeks to finish it all off.

Instead of cutting out candy completely on Halloween, perhaps consider allowing your family to have a Halloween treat pass until the clock strikes midnight. This way your kids can enjoy the splendor of gathering as much candy as they can, but will also prevent them from extending the candy mentality into the rest of the year.

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Posted on October 23, 2023 by Kati

Healthy Easter Basket Stuffers for All Ages

By Jessie Gorges and Kelsey Murray

Forget the Peeps and chocolate bunnies; get your children, significant other and family members something healthy this year for Easter.

According to Dr. Kavey on WebMD.com, too much sugar can be a problem for children because it can lead children into lifelong obesity. “The reason that we think of it as a problem is because of the big rise in obesity in childhood, and that rise has occurred over the same time period that there’s been a major increase in the amount of simple sugar that children consume.”

Check out these healthy Easter basket treats with little to no sugar that everyone is sure to love.

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Posted on April 22, 2024 by Health Buzz

Best and Worst Easter Basket Candies

by Kelsey Murray

For many people, Easter is a religious holiday that causes them to meditate on the sacrifices their Creator made for them. For most children, however, Easter is all about the Bunny and the candy. For the parents of these children, Easter is about sugar-highs and trips to the dentist.

If you are a parent and want to give your children healthier candies and chocolates this year (or if you just have a sweet tooth yourself), consider these Easter sweets instead of your usual standbys.

Dark Chocolate Covered Nuts. Almonds, walnuts, cashews, and other nuts provide healthy fats that are essential for your body to function properly. Dark chocolate provides antioxidants while also lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol and boosting your mood (every woman knows that chocolate has magic mood-lifting powers). The combination of nuts and dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa) usually weighs in at 210 calories per 1.4 ounces while also providing 8 percent of your daily dietary fiber.

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Posted on April 8, 2024 by Health Buzz

Candy Eaters Have Smaller Waistlines, BMI and Weigh Less

Once in a while, a study comes around that just has to make health professionals a little squeamish. You know the kind – the ones that seem to not only contradict common sense, but also ends up as fuel for unhealthy people to justify bad eating habits.

This time around, a study is giving people who love their sweets a sweet surprise. Apparently candy and chocolate eaters tend to beat out those who don’t in the categories of waistline, weight, and body mass index (BMI).

But wait, there’s more.

Those in the study who ate candy and chocolate had a 14 percent lower risk of elevated blood pressure and a 15 percent decreased risk of metabolic syndrome (risk factors for heart disease and stroke). (more…)

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Jason

10 Breakfast Foods With as Much Sugar as a Candy Bar

Would you eat four candy bars for breakfast? What if your kids asked for this for breakfast, would you let them? The answer is likely no, because it’s candy and we don’t eat that for breakfast. But did you ever stop to think that the things you typically grab for breakfast, for yourself or your kids, might as well be candy? It’s true! Most of our go-to breakfast items have as much sugar as our favorite candies. No wonder our kids can’t concentrate in school and we don’t have the energy to get through a 10 a.m. meeting without bum-rushing the coffee machine.

If you’re looking to make some healthy changes for the new year, we can tell you that changing the way you do breakfast should be a priority. The cliche that it’s the most important meal of the day is very true, and if you can conquer that meal, then you’ll be able to start conquering the others.

We compared 10 of the most popular breakfast items, some of which actually give the illusion of being health foods, to our favorite candies to show you that a cup of yogurt or bowl of cereal is sometimes no better than the treats Santa left in your stocking. (more…)

Posted on December 28, 2023 by Natalie K

Eliminate Halloween Candy Without Eating It

You are working hard to minimize your intake of sugar and processed foods, but you don’t want your children to miss out on the fun of Halloween and dressing up and trick or treating. Maybe you want to minimize the sugar and processed food your children eat and teach them healthy eating habits.

What are you going to do with all that Halloween candy?!?

You could simply throw it out, but you risk complaints from the kids. Plus, what are you teaching them other than denying them indulgence? You could hide it in that cabinet above the refrigerator, hoping the kids (and you) forget about it- but will that work? (more…)

Posted on November 1, 2023 by Brooke Randolph

Candy Experiments Eliminate Halloween Sugar High in a Fun Way

Houses across America have either already been inundated with bucket loads of candy, or they’re starting to brace themselves for Sunday night’s onslaught. Kids aren’t the only victims of the sugar high and calorie binge that’s about to take place, moms and dads are just as, if not more, likely to dip their hands into the trick-or-treat stash.

What to do? Sure you could handout toothbrushes… but really? Temporary tattoos, scary baby carrots, goody bag yo-yos and sugar-free gum are all healthy alternatives, but where’s the fun in that? Put that candy to good use!

Go ahead and let your kids rake in as much candy as possible. Then, spend an afternoon experimenting with the candy! Instead of burning brain cells on refined sugar, fuel their brain cells with fun-filled knowledge.

We cruised around the Web and found some pretty cool candy experiments. All of these make for some cheap fun that uses all that Halloween loot in a practical, fun and non-wasteful way. Just like in high school chemistry… don’t eat anything in the lab! (more…)

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Natalie K

Is Food Dye a Health Risk?

Candies containg food dyeWith Halloween around the corner, there’s a lot of discussion about the nutritional pitfall that is candy. We know Halloween candy can be packed with empty calories, and have offered advice on how to avoid binging, but a recent report in Eating Well suggested that synthetic food dyes may also post problems to your health.

Americans consume five times more synthetic food coloring than in 1955, in diverse products from candy and cereal to frosting and ice cream. Food dyes are always included in the ingredients list with the rest of a food’s nutritional information. These synthetic food dyes are identifiable as a color followed by a number: Blue 1, Red 3, Yellow 5. Three of the most commonly used dyes, Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Red 40 have been linked to cancer.

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Posted on October 22, 2023 by Health Buzz