Not So Sugar-Coated Truth About Halloween Candy
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Be it ghosts, princesses, or fairies, pint-sized trick-or-treaters will all want one thing this Halloween: candy, and a lot of it.
As CBS2's Alex Denis reported, your trick-or-treater is sure to get buckets full of candy this Halloween, but when you unwrap the sweet treats, you'll find more than gooey goodness inside, according to nutritionist Lauren Slayton.
"The good picks for Halloween candy, I use 8 grams or less, which is still about 2 teaspoons of sugar in a tiny, little fun-sized bar," Slayton said.
Many of the Halloween go-tos don't meet that criteria, adding calories to your diet that sneak up and say Boo!
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When comparing some popular picks, fun-sized packs of Peanut M&Ms, Snickers, and York Peppermint Patties have 9 grams of sugar. Tootsie Pops and 3 Musketeers have 10 grams of sugar and a little more than 60 calories.
Skittles have roughly 11 grams of sugar and Reeses peanut butter ups have 110 calories in just one service.
But the ultimate offender is a classic Halloween candy: 10 pieces of candy corn packs 14 grams of sugar.
Some of the better options include Mounds, Chocolate Crunch Bars, and Kit-Kats, which all have 7 grams of sugar and range between 60 and 80 calories.
Also on the list: Twizzlers with only 6 grams of sugar and 50 calories. But there's also a warning -- artificially colored candies can transform your little princess into a scary goblin.
"You're going to see a color, like red, yellow or blue, followed by a number; Red 40, Yellow 5 or Yellow 6. And those are actually more associated with behavioral issues with children as well as headaches," said Slayton.
