Ah — Halloween candy! It’s pretty hard to escape because it’s everywhere – on desks, in restaurants, even in my veterinarian’s office in a nice purple bowl with a dog bone painted on the side.
Halloween week accounts for about eight percent of yearly confectionery sales and 34% of seasonal candy sales (like Christmas and Valentine’s Day). Only Easter, the next largest candy holiday, comes close.
FYI: The top five candies of all time — click here for the list of the top 50 – even though you might not agree:
- Reese’s peanut butter cups
- Twizzlers
- Snickers
- Hershey’s Kiss
- M&Ms
Can’t resist – do you invade your kid’s Trick or Treat bag — what do you go for first?
Don’t feel guilty — If you’ve ever swiped candy from your kid’s trick or treat bag, you’re certainly not alone. According to the National Confectioners Association, 90% of parents confess they occasionally dip into their kid’s stash. I know I sure did.
It’s been estimated that, on average, a child in the US collects between 3,500 and 7,000 worth of candy calories on Halloween night.
Parents invade that collection big time — they eat one candy bar out of every two a child brings home. Their favorite targets are snack-sized chocolate bars (70%), candy-coated chocolate pieces (40%), caramels (37%) and gum (26%).
In Case You Want To Pick The Least Caloric Candy . . .
Here are the calories in some popular Halloween candy – just in case you might want to minimize the caloric damage (you didn’t read that wrong — candy has a big range of calories and fat grams) – and, just so you know — minis are small square candies while snack-size and fun-size are usually about 2 inches long:
25 calories or less:
- 3 Musketeers, Mini
- Hershey’s Kiss
- Smarties Candy Roll
30 – 50 calories each:
- Airheads, Mini Bar
- Kit Kat, Miniature
- Milky Way, Mini
- Peppermint Pattie, Fun size
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Miniature
- Snickers, Miniature
- Starburst, 2 Fun Size pieces
- Twix Caramel Cookie Bars, Mini
50 to 70 calories each:
- 3 Musketeers, Fun Size
- Hershey’s Milk Chocolate, snack size
- Jolly Ranchers Lollipop
- Skittles, Fun Size Bag
- Sour Patch Kids, Treat Size
- Swedish Fish, Treat Size
- Tootsie Roll Pop
70 to 85 calories each:
- Brach’s Candy Corn: 10 pieces
- Butterfinger, Fun Size
- Kit Kat, Fun size; 73 calories
- Milky Way, Fun Size
- M&Ms, Fun size bag
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, Fun size
- Snickers, Fun Size
- Tootsie Rolls, 3 midgee pieces
Happy Halloween!
Leave a Reply