Welcome to the open candy buffet!!! It’s HALLOWEEN! (AKA: Better take two, they’re small!)
I am not someone who counts calories. I do read labels for ingredients, but more often than not, I am a portion person. I was never a member of the “clean plate club” growing up. Occasionally I over-indulge, but not often, even on chocolate and sweets.
As a kid, I remember filling trick-or-treat bags on Halloween night. We’d come home and my father would be waiting at the dining room table to do the ‘candy safety check’. Looking back, it’s entirely possible my father was actually sorting through for his favorites while examining wrappers and tossing home-made sweets.
This was back in the days when full-sized candy-bars were the norm and any neighbor caught skimping would wake up on November 1st to tendrils of Charmin drifting from their trees and bushes. I guess it’s a little different today. We have gone from full-sized to fun-sized to “minis”, “snack” and “treat” sized in the span of a few decades.
I recently saw a calorie breakdown of trick-or-treat candy. I know it’s important to watch your intake of sweets, so I thought I’d share what I found.
75-80 calories each (the most):
Butterfinger Fun Size
Milky Way Fun Size
Snickers Fun Size
50-70 calories each:
3 Musketeers Fun Size
Jolly Ranchers Lollipop
M&M’s Fun Size
Skittles Fun Size
Sour Patch Kids Treat Size
Swedish Fish Treat Size
York Peppermint Patties Snack Size
30-50 calories each:
Airheads Mini Bars
Kit Kat Miniatures
Milky Way Minis
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures
Snickers Miniatures
Starburst Fun Size (2 pieces)
Twix Caramel Cookie Bars Minis
25 calories each:
3 Musketeers Minis
Hershey’s Kisses
Smarties Candy Rolls
These calorie counts are all fine and good, but who actually eats just one of those itty-bitty fingernail sized candies? If you are like me, you will have 3… 4… 5… of the micro-candies and the only thing slowing you down is the individual wrappers. Just for fun, I thought I’d compare calories in the life-sized version of a few of these treats:
Full Size Candy Bar Calories:
Three Musketeers: 212
Kit-Kat Bar: 220.5
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: 222
Peanut M&M’s: 242
Skittles: 231
Snickers: 273
Twix: 284
Just a little food for thought.
About Cat Wilson
