Sweets That Aren't Treats
Halloween might have come and gone, but for all the candy you've consumed or have yet to eat, you should probably read up on the nutrition facts before digging in. Chances are you'll find that many of your favorite gummies, lollies, and chocolates pack far more sugar than you'd expect. From Skittles to Mike and Ike, here are 20 sugary candies you love—but shouldn't be eating.
1. Skittles
While these colorful, chewy candies are fun and tasty to eat, they pack an astoundingly high amount of sugar. A single serving of about 27 pieces contains 21 grams of sugar, meaning a single Skittle has almost 1 gram of sugar.
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2. Sour Patch Kids
Sour Patch Kids are a favorite when looking for something sweet and tart, but these suckers contain 31 grams of sugar per 40 grams, or 16 pieces. That means if you ate an entire 150-gram bag, you're clocking in over 100 grams of sugar—or 2 grams of sugar per candy.
3. M&Ms
After Skittles and Sour Patch Kids, you might be underwhelmed by the sugar content in M&Ms, but it's just as unhealthy. A 28-gram (32 pieces) serving size of a regular bag of these candy-coated chocolates rings in 18 grams of sugar. It's also easy to get carried away when eating these since they're so small, so you might end up eating an entire bag without realizing it.
4. Hershey's Kisses
Hershey's Kisses are just as addictive to eat as M&Ms or any other candies we've covered so far. But while 32 tiny pieces of M&Ms contain 18 grams of sugar, just seven pieces of Hershey's Kisses will clock in the same amount.
5. Twix
Who doesn't love Twix? Crunchy cookie, gooey caramel, rich milk chocolate—this is heaven for all candy lovers, making it impossible to just have one bar. But eating one full bar brings 12.5 grams of sugar with it, and doubling that means 25 grams of sugar for both bars.
6. 3 Musketeers
Whipped nougat and covered with chocolate might sound like an absolute dream, but a single bar of this bad boy has a whopping 37 grams of sugar. It also contains almost 5 grams of saturated fat—the kind that increases your bad cholesterol—and 240 calories.
7. Butterfinger
As you've probably guessed from the name, Butterfinger isn't exactly a healthy candy choice. Crunchy layers of peanut butter crisp covered in cocoa means this is as decadent as chocolate bars come. But just like 3 Musketeers and other similar bars, this contains 21 grams of sugar per bar, with 5 grams of saturated fat and 250 calories.
8. Milky Way
The original Milky Way bar is packed with nougat and caramel with a chocolate coating. Delicious as it sounds, a single bar contains 32 grams of sugar and 6 grams of saturated fat. If you opt for the minis version, each small bar contains just over 5 grams of sugar, meaning eating four of them amounts to 21 grams of sugar.
9. KitKat
While KitKat is marketed to be a tasty chocolate bar to snack for a quick break, you probably wouldn't want to reach for this if you're looking out for your health. With 11 grams of sugar in each stick, eating both—which most would do—increases that total to 22 grams.
10. Swedish Fish
These fruit-flavored Swedish Fish-shaped gummies might seem innocuous from the package, but pop five of these suckers in your mouth and you'll have already clocked in 23 grams of sugar. To put that into perspective, that means just one of these candies contains almost 5 grams of sugar. Just one!
11. Snickers & Mars
Mars and Snickers bars are also favorites for many; you'd reach for Mars for a peanut-free, nougat and caramel filling, and Snickers if you do want the extra roasted nuts. But a single bar of each packs in 31 grams and 28 grams of sugar, respectively, meaning if you ate both in one sitting, you'd far exceed the daily recommended sugar intake for adults, which suggests 30 grams as the limit—that's one Mars bar!
12. Whoppers
Sure, you might fill a bowl with Whoppers for a movie night in, but as tasty as these malt milk balls are, they're mostly loaded with carbs and sugar. Each has about 18 pieces (41 grams) of these, and you'll be clocking in 31 grams of carbs and 24 grams of sugar.
13. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
If you're a sucker for the peanut butter and chocolate pairing, you've likely had Reese's Peanut Butter Cups; they might even be your favorite. You might want to slow down on chowing all three cups in a single pack, though. Each cup contains 8 grams of sugar, meaning eating all three totals 24 grams.
14. Starburst
The great thing about Starburst candies is that they come in different varieties, from sweet to sour, jelly beans to the original chewy form we all know and love. If you just bought a single stick of Starburst Original, which contains 12 pieces in various flavors, eating them all in one go totals 33 grams of sugar.
15. Candy Corn
Ah, candy corn—the perfect festive treat to snack on during Halloween. While it's not a candy that most kids would reach for, it's still popular enough to appear on cake and cookie decorations and the like. Careful not to consume too many, though: since it's mostly made up of sugar and corn syrup (not to mention gelatin and artificial flavoring), a 19-piece handful of these clocks in almost 30 grams of sugar.
16. Dubble Bubble Gum
Who knew that gum also packed in a lot of sugar? The famous blue-and-yellow wrapper of Dubble Bubble Gum, in particular, packs in 4 grams of sugar in one single piece. That might not sound like a lot, but knowing most people chew two at once (to get that huge bubble), that's 8 grams already.
17. Mike and Ike
Mike and Ike's pill-shaped fruit candies are just as beloved as all the others on this list, and a box of these is a likely choice for movie-goers. And since that means most would opt for the theater box size, a serving size of 16 pieces (which is just a quarter of the photo here, for reference) totals 18 grams of sugar. That's almost a gram of sugar per piece!
18. Baby Ruth
Baby Ruth bars are similar to Snickers, with a filling of roasted nuts, caramel, and nougat wrapped in chocolate. That's not where the similarities end, though. A single bar racks up 260 calories, with 12 grams of total fat (7 grams of which are saturated fat) and 28 grams of sugar. If that doesn't deter you from taking another bite, we don't know what would.
19. DOTS
These colorful, gummy-like candies are great for tossing in your mouth—that is, if you're a sugar addict. Fun and innocent as they look, eating eight pieces of these amounts to 15 grams of sugar. They're also loaded with artificial colors and flavors.
20. Twizzlers
Twizzlers might not be the candy of choice for most (unless you like rubbery licorice), but that might not be a bad thing. After all, despite being "low in fat," these twisty snacks clock in 13 grams of sugar per three pieces—that's over 4 grams of sugar a piece!
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