Easter Candy: The Best and Worst for Your Waistline

Chocolate bunnies, Cadbury Eggs, jelly beans, marshmallow Peeps – Oh, sweet Easter! American’s love their Easter candy, so much in fact, that American’s will spend more than $2 billion on Easter candy this year, up 11% from last year’s spending!

But all that candy can really set you back when it comes to bikini season! Those tiny little chocolate eggs can add up to an entire day’s worth of calories if you’re not careful. And don’t discount all those “fat-free” candies like marshmallow Peeps and jelly beans; they still contain a lot of sugar and calories.

Sure, Easter only comes once a year and you’re probably not overdosing in jelly beans year-round. Just choose wisely and do so in moderation! Here are some of the best and worst options to fill your basket with:

Best:

Jelly Beans. One serving of Jelly Belly jelly beans is 35 pieces and only 140 calories. But it’s still 28 grams of sugar, which is more than the recommended daily intake for women.

Peeps. This fat-free candy is one of the better options, but one serving – a pack of 5 – contains a whopping 34 grams of sugar. Share the pack or save a few for later!

Chocolate Marshmallow Eggs. Of all the chocolate-covered eggs, this one is the best. It contains the least amount of fat, just about 3 grams, compared to 5 grams of fat in a peanut butter egg and 6 in a Cadbury Creme.

And always choose dark chocolate over milk and white chocolate!

Worst:

Solid chocolate bunnies. These are loaded with both sugar and fat, and its large size makes it difficult to portion control; before you know it, you’ve eaten the whole rabbit! Stick to smaller, single portion sizes.

Cadbury Mini Eggs. Just 12 of these little eggs contain 190 calories, 8 grams of fat, and 27 grams of sugar. And can you really stop at 12?

Reese’s Reester Bunny. This peanut butter-filled chocolate bunny has 760 calories and 40 grams of fat – that’s equal to eating 4 Reese’s Eggs. Indulge in just one Reese’s Egg instead, which contains 180 calories and 10 grams of fat.

Check out this caloric breakdown of all the Easter basket favorite, via Fitsugar.

Candy Calories Fat (g) Carbs (g) Sugar (g)
4 Peeps Marshmallow Bunnies 130 0 33 29
1 Peeps Hollow Milk Chocolate Egg 420 24 54 52
5 Mars Mini Chocolate Eggs 179 10 20.4 17.6
1 Cadbury Solid Milk Chocolate Easter Bunny 890 48.6 101.2 97.1
1 Cadbury Creme Egg 150 6 24 20
12 Cadbury Chocolate Eggs 190 8 28 27
1 Dove Solid Chocolate Easter Bunny 230 13 25 24
1 Nestle’s Crunch Nest Egg 180 9 25 20
1 Snickers Cream Sports Egg 140 6 18 16
1 Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg 180 10 18 16
1 Reese’s Reester Bunny 760 40 88 72
1 Brachs Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Egg 43 1.3 7.8 6
9 Brachs Malted Easter Eggs 200 8 32 23
35 Jelly Belly Assorted Jellybeans 140 0 35 32

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