Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Five "Better For You" Candies

The power of a sweet tooth is strong. Everybody craves candy sometimes, but according to recent studies, sugar is really bad for the human body. Some scientific research links sugar to cancer and heart disease

Yet if we try to eliminate all candy from our diets, most of us will fail. Extreme diets that make us feel deprived rarely succeed. The trick is to eat sugar in moderation. Sweets should be a special treat. So figure out what candies satisfy your hankering for sugar and eat them mindfully ... as a planned treat, limiting yourself to one serving.

Here are 5 candies that are better for you (or less bad, however you want to look at it) to consider:

1. Cry Baby Tears - This is the mother of extra sour candy, thus, the name. There are 5 intense flavors in a box. Cry Babies are one of my favorites, but they are not for everyone. 12 tears have 50 calories.

2. Sweetarts - If you love sour candy, but Cry Babies make you pucker up, try Sweetarts. They are tangy-tarty good. 10 pieces are 60 calories.

2. Premium Dark Chocolate - Eat chocolate with at least 70% cocoa. One ounce is heart-healthy because it contains antioxidants.

3. Atomic FireBalls - Have a hot cinnamon flavor. They are hard as a rock, so you can only eat one ball over a length of time by sucking on it as it dissolves slowly in your mouth. That one 20 calorie ball is packed with flavor.

4. Crystallized Ginger - Ginger has anti-inflammatory properties. Just a few pieces, at 18 calories each, satisfy a yen with heat and intense flavor.

5. Candy Corn (and pumpkins) - are made from sugar, corn syrup, carnauba wax, fondant and marshmallows. Candy corn has zero fat and 8 calories a piece. It is a good choice because of how sweet it is. A little goes a long way. Candy pumpkins are double in size and calories.

Except for the chocolate, which has roughly 210 calories, the other candy listed is 60 calories or less per serving. Each is low in fat (except the chocolate), but high in flavor to satisfy your sweet tooth. Savor your treat!

Here is a fun website where you can find nostalgic candy by the decade. Do you have a favorite candy to recommend?

You may also enjoy:

2 comments:

  1. I wish what you were saying about candy corns/ candy pumpkins was true. It's a bit like that old tagline for chips- "you can't have just one". If I had the will power to stop after maybe one handful, that would be fine, but those little things are quite addictive. Also, not sure what sweetener is in there exactly (maybe sorbitol or similar) but let's just say it's not an aid to digestion!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Barry, I like candy corn, but they are so sweet, I can't eat more than a handful. You must like super sweet! Actually, candy corn has no artificial sweetners. They are an old time candy, and at one time, were made with honey. Now it's just sugar, I think. I'm not sure if honey is still added. I do know they taste best wihen fresh and soft. As they age, they get hard.

    ReplyDelete