What to choose for trick-or-treat?
While Halloween it still a few weeks away Walmart grocery is already pumpkin-decorated and you may walk by two aisles overloaded with orange boxes full of all possible candies. However, not all of them are equally safe for your children and the children of your neighborhood. What to choose for trick-or-treat to make sure that risky food additives are not to compromise your children’s health? In my point of view, this requirement would eliminate all artificially colored candies, at least. What remains? Let’s take a look, for instance, at Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups milk chocolate made by The Hershey Company.
DyeDiet Doesn’t Buy It!
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: Risk and Nutrition
With every serving (5 pieces, 44 g) of the candy you will get 23 g (50% by weight) of sugar and 5 g (11% by weight ) of undesirable saturated fat. Nutritional value of this candy suffers due to presence of the two biologically foreign food additives (red segments in the diegram):
- PGPR stands for Polyglycerol polyricinoleate, a semi-synthetic emulsifier, a cheap non-nutritional replacement for an expensive nutritional cocoa butter to increase Hershey’s profit at the expense of your health;
- TBHQ stands for tert-Butyl hydroquinone, a preservative which may produce negative health effects. See: Why TBHQ should be avoided?
All in all you take relatively low health risk of DDFI = 12/25 ~ 0.5 and get reasonable nutritional value of DDNF = 25/17 ~ 1.5. Also please keep in mind that some kids and adults may at higher risk because of peanut allergy.
Despite Reese’s candy is way better than some nutritionally awful Easter Candy it is still not good enough to be recommended.
Now take a look at the Kraft Caramels Traditional which gives you 27 g (66% by weight!) of sugar and only 2 g (5% by weight) of saturated fat with every serving of 5 pieces (41 g).
Kraft Caramels Traditional: Risk and Nutrition
This one is a little more sugary but it is significantly lower in saturated fat thus lowering the risk of heart problems. Accordingly, with only one biologically foreign food additive (red segment) you get even lower health risk factor DDFI = 6/21 ~ 0.3 and you will enjoy improved nutritional value of DDNF = 21/11 ~ 2. So this caramel is less risky as far as it is eaten in MODERATION and sugar consumed is under control. However I still cannot recommend it because DyeDyet recommended products cannot contain red segments in their diagrams.
What I honestly would like to recommend is this: fresh grape and nuts available at Walmart as unquestionably healthier replacement for any candy! And the taste is superior too!
DyeDiet Recommended
Better than candy: Grape and Nuts
I enjoy eating this for dessert all the time. Try it and treat your children to it! I hope this quick report will help you to avoid risky “trick-or-treat” mistakes!
Category: Candy
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no, i dont care though. i have lovced eating reeses peanut butter candies of all shapes and sizes all my life. do i seem dead to you?
Hi there, I don’t tell you WHAT to eat and what not to. I just tell you what the risks are. Freedom of choice is yours.
oh yeah, and by the way, if i get nuts and grapes when i go trick or treating tonight. that house is getting egged.
Why don’t you just get the healthy alternative to reese’s PB cups. If you’ve never tried all natural organic PB cups you are missing out!! They actually use REAL peanut butter, and REAL chocolate. They are much creamier and taste so much better! You’ll never buy the cheap crap again 🙂