Halloween Candy 2015: What You Should And Shouldn’t Eat

Halloween is on Saturday, Oct. 31, but many kids have started their trick-or-treating on Friday night. It’s the one day out of the year where it’s okay for children to gorge on the endless supply of candy and goodies they receive.

But of course with every good batch of candy comes an awful batch of candy. In case you’re wondering what’s some of the best and worst Halloween candy to eat, MassLive has already done the work for you. As you can see, the worst types of candies are the ones that are slightly dated and not as popular, while some of the best are classics but have never gone out of style.

The 10 Best Halloween Candy of 2015

1. Kit-Kat Bars

2. Snickers

3. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

4. Take 5 Bars

5. Skittles

6. Baby Ruth

7. Twix

8. Peanut M&Ms

9. 100 Grand

10. Starburst

Honorable mentions: Milky Way bars, Airheads, milk chocolate M&Ms, 3 Musketeers, Lifesaver Gummies, Nestle’s Crunch Bars

The 10 Worst Halloween Candy of 2015

1. Necco Wafers

2. Bit O’ Honey

3. Whoppers

4. Dots

5. Twizzlers

6. Dum Dums

7. Dubble Bubble/Gum

8. Smarties

9. Jolly Ranchers

10. Fireballs

Dishonorable mentions: Candy corn, Starlight mints, Wax lips, Hershey Kisses with Almonds, lollipops

Another Halloween candy that’s not really a candy but more of a healthy treat is carrots. There are some households in the U.S. that will decide to hand out apples or carrots instead of candy. Not only is childhood obesity a problem, but there have been growing concerns with food allergies over the years. Both schools and camps have been going nut-free to avoid specific food allergies.

Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon noticed orange flyers posted throughout New Britain, CT, that read, “Attention parents: My son has severe allergies and comes home every year devastated that he can’t eat any candy he’s collected at your homes while trick-or-treating. Don’t exclude my child or any child from the fun.”

The notice also asked for “responsible parenting” and suggested that parents hand out “tasty and allergy-conscience [sic] suggestions” such as “carrot sticks; Necco Wafers, Smarties, Life Savers, and Brach’s Lemon Drops candy; and raisins but stay away from Raisinettes!” Notice that some of these candies are on Mass Live‘s top 10 list of the worst Halloween candy of 2015. That means children with sensitive food allergies will have to suffer through some of these choices, or just not go trick-or-treating at all.

So, what about the kids that can eat anything? According to the World Health Organization, kids should only eat about 10 percent of their daily caloric intake from sugar. It may be okay if your kids have a binge fest on Halloween night, but you should set some rules after the fact. For example, you can have a no-candy rule before or during school, according to CNN. Give them one or two pieces of candy as part of their after-school snack.

And instead of letting your child hoard their Halloween candy in his or her bedroom, you could have it stored in a central location of your house. Other ways of letting your kids have a healthier Halloween include allowing them to eat a full meal before trick-or-treating, having them walk instead of chauffeuring them, allowing them to keep three or five types of candies, and keeping the remaining candy out of reach.

You don’t have to throw out the remainder of the Halloween candy. There are candy buy-back programs that allow children to sell their Halloween candy to their local dentist, who then sends it over to the troops overseas. Operation Gratitude packages the candy and sends it over to the troops, while a Glendale dental office has purchased between 230 and 280 pounds of Halloween candy each year.

These tips will allow your kids to have a healthier Halloween, and to eat the candy they can eat (and will) enjoy. What are your favorite and less favorite Halloween candies? Let us know below in the comments section.

[Photo Courtesy of mateoutah Flickr via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and Resized | CC BY-SA 2.0]