Let me start with a disclaimer. This post is not about healthy Halloween candy. It all has some type of added sugar in it, so none of it can be classified as healthy. But come on, it’s Halloween! I’m definitely of the enjoy in moderation mindset. That aside, what this post is about is helping you kind souls who can’t stand when a child comes to your door and says they can’t have any of your candy because of food allergies. As the mother of a child who used to be allergic to six of the eight major food allergens and who still has several major food allergies, I’ve been asked many times over the years about what’s the best allergy-friendly candy for Halloween. This post is to answer that and to give you some healthier and not-so-healthy options to make yours the favorite house on the street.

Please Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made through some of the links included in this post. You can read my disclosure policy here.

Important Note About Allergy-Friendly Candy and Halloween

Before I get to the treats, it’s important to point out the tricky part of Halloween with food allergies. I strongly believe that it is not your responsibility to make sure that someone else’s child doesn’t eat something that they’re allergic to. That is the job of the child’s parents. They know everything that their child can and can’t have, and they’re the ones that have to read every ingredient label whether it’s the first time their child has had a food or the one hundredth. Ingredients change all the time, and you can’t be expected to be a professional label reader if allergies aren’t a regular concern for you. 

Along those same lines, the candy listed here is based on manufacturer and ingredient label research for items sold in the U.S. as of October 2021. Those ingredients may change tomorrow, but I can tell you that the candy listed here has fairly reliably stayed the same as far as allergens go over the past 13 years. Still, it’s up to parents of children with allergies to check the ingredient label of every piece of candy their child eats. All you can do is to make an effort to accommodate them if that’s what you would like to do, the rest is up to their parents. 

If you do try to accommodate children with allergies, I strongly advise against assuring parents that you have candy that their child can definitely eat. If you know a child has allergies, you can certainly let the parents know that you tried to include candy that their child can have but remind them that they’ll still need to check the ingredient labels to be sure. 

Okay, enough with the spooky stuff, now on to the treats! 

Peanut and Tree Nut-Free Allergy-Friendly Candy

While peanuts are not nuts, it’s often easier to group them with tree nuts in terms of talking generally about food allergies. The allergy-friendly candy included in this list should be safe for either. 

• Tootsie Rolls 
• Milk Duds
• Skittles Original Bite Size Candies
• Dove bars
• Fun Dip
• Whoppers Malted Milk Balls
• Smarties
• Starburst Fruit Chews
• Jolly Rancher
• Nerds
• Dum Dums

Dairy and Egg-Free Candy

Dairy is a tough one for Halloween. If the candy is made of chocolate, it probably has dairy in it. That’s why the sugary, hard candies are best for this allergy. The allergy-friendly candy included in this list should be safe for both dairy and egg allergies. 

• Skittles Original Bite Size Candies
• Smarties
• Fun Dip 
• Starburst Fruit Chews
• Jolly Rancher
• Nerds **Dairy-free but may contain eggs
• Dum Dums

Wheat/Gluten-Free Allergy-Friendly Candy

Wheat and gluten-free options are probably more numerous than you might think. Since some of these overlap with other categories, you should be able to find at least several options that accommodate more than one type of allergy or sensitivity. The allergy-friendly candy included in this list should be safe for both wheat allergies and gluten sensitivities.

• Tootsie Rolls 
• Regular M&M’s Fun Size 
• Milk Duds 
• Milky Way Minis
• 3 Musketeer Bar
• Skittles Original Bite Size Candies
• Dove bars
• Snickers Minis
• Heath Bar
• Fun Dip
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
• Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar
• Butterfinger
• Baby Ruth
• Smarties
• Starburst Fruit Chews
• Jolly Rancher
• Nerds
• Dum Dums

Soy-Free Candy

• Smarties
• Fun Dip 
• Starburst Fruit Chews
• Jolly Rancher
• Nerds
• Dum Dums
• Skittles Original Bite Size Candies

Peanut, Tree Nut, Eggs, Dairy, Soy, Wheat/Gluten and Red Dye Free Allergy-Friendly Candy

Since many kids have more than one thing that they’re allergic to, these options are for the kids allergic to seemingly everything. Hello my youngest at 3 years old! I’m specifying red dye here because that’s one of the most common dye allergies and that’s the one that I have experience with. The allergy-friendly candy included in this list should be safe for peanut, tree nut, egg, dairy, soy, wheat/gluten, and red dye allergies. **Yes, some of the Smarties do have red dye, but you can take them out. The colors don’t bleed like they do with Skittles, so we’ve always found this candy to be a safe option.

• Smarties **Yes, some of the Smarties do have red dye, but you can take them out. The colors don’t bleed like they do with Skittles, so we’ve always found this candy to be a safe option. 
• RazApple Magic Fun Dip (it’s blue and comes in a box with packages of Like-M-Aid Fun Dip Cherry Yum Diddly)
• Starburst Fruit Chews **Some do have red dye, but those are easy to avoid since they’re individually wrapped
• Dum Dums **You have to look carefully to find the ones that don’t have red dye

Healthier Options for Allergy-Friendly Candy

As I mentioned earlier, there is no such thing as healthy store-bought Halloween candy. If you want to get “healthier” versions though that are safe for most allergies, there are options. These take a little more planning because they’re not available at many stores. Here are some options and links to where you can find them. 

• Candy Corn from Yum Earth (Free of fish, milk, peanuts, shellfish, tree nuts, soy, artificial food dyes, high fructose corn syrup and wheat.) – Target carries
• Organic Lollipops, Assorted Flavors from Yum Earth (Free of soy, egg, dairy, fish, shellfish, peanuts or tree nuts, artificial dyes, wheat/gluten, and high fructose corn syrup) – Amazon (Affiliate link) and Vitacost carry 
• Organic Fruit Snacks & Organic Vitamin C Lollipops from Yum Earth (Free of soy, egg, dairy, fish, shellfish, peanuts or tree nuts, artificial dyes, wheat/gluten, and high fructose corn syrup) – Amazon (Affiliate link) and Vitacost carry 

Bottom Line on Allergy-Friendly Candy for Halloween

Given the options on this list, accommodating children with food allergies is not as hard as you may think. The main thing to remember is that if you do want to do this, all you can do is try. Since many children are allergic to more than one thing, there is absolutely no way for you to be able to fit the needs of everyone. If there are specific children that you really want to make sure have something, contact their parents and ask what some safe candy is for them. Then you can put it in a baggie and set it aside. 

As the mother of a child who loved simply getting to go trick-or-treating with the rest of the kids, I always appreciated the friends and neighbors who tried to accommodate him, but I certainly didn’t expect it. We had our own system worked out so that he always had more than enough even if it was limited in variety. So, thank you on behalf of allergy parents, if this is something that you’re even considering. 

Lean on Your Community

If you know of parents who are just starting out with food allergies and aren’t sure how to handle Halloween, feel free to have them get in touch with me. I’m happy to share the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the last 15 years of navigating the world of food allergies. 

The post Best Allergy-Friendly Candy for Halloween appeared first on Peppermint Tea.

Fuddy-duddy alert! Not for kids, because I’m not about to take on them and their Halloween candy. You’re on your on with that. But for us adults. I can handle your backlash and honestly, I feel like I need to share some of the difficult lessons I’ve learned stemming from Halloween candy overindulgence over the past year. As I’ve learned, the scariest thing about Halloween candy for adults is the amount of added sugar and sweeteners. While this certainly isn’t good for kids either, again, I’m focusing on the downward spiral that Halloween candy can trigger in us as grownups and how we can indulge but not overdo.

My Scary Story

I have been able to eat Halloween candy in very moderate amounts for years. Maybe a couple of pieces on Halloween night, and that was it. The bowl full of leftovers, and my son’s bucket didn’t phase me. I hardly have any added sugar these days, so it usually doesn’t take much for me to get to my sweetness limit. But for some reason, my resolve wasn’t what it usually was last year, and I had quite a few pieces on Halloween night. I remember eating a couple and thinking, “That was really good.” And then eating more.

The next day, I had about the same amount. Not just a couple of pieces. And then the next day, the same thing. Each day, I would say that I was going to get rid of the rest of it after I ate a couple of pieces – that I just needed it that day to help get me through the afternoon. But I never did. Unfortunately, it had been a slow year for trick-or-treaters, and we had a lot leftover.

The problem was, the extremely sweet tooth that I had been successful at tempering for the previous years had been stimulated big time with that first night of candy, and before I knew it, I was hooked on sugar again. The even bigger problem – Halloween leads into the holiday season, and if you’ve got an overactive sweet tooth, you’re pretty much doomed for the next two months. Then, as it’s happened with me, it could take the next nine months to get your eating habits back to where you want them to be.

Why Is Added Sugar Bad for You?

Foods such as fruits and vegetables naturally contain sugar. These aren’t the ones that you usually need to worry about. It’s the sugar or sweeteners that are added during processing that we need to look out for. According to Mayo Clinic, eating too many foods with added sugars can set the stage for weight gain and heart disease as well as diabetes.

In addition, if you’re eating too much added sugar, then you may not have room for the foods that actually nourish you. Or, if you do eat those as well, you’re probably going to exceed the recommended number of calories that you should be having each day. It’s important to remember that added sugar really has no nutritional value other than supplying lots of calories. Yes, your body can use it for energy but if you’re not getting other needed nutrients with it, Mayo Clinic says that it can lead to poor nutrition.

In fact, Integrative Nutrition Health Coach Karima Shariff says that one of the reasons that we might crave sugar is that we’re not getting enough calories, so our body wants that quick energy that sugar gives us. Which probably leads to how I ended up relying on the Halloween candy to give me my afternoon energy boost. Instead of indulging, I should have been looking at what else I was and wasn’t eating at the time, and figured out, as I’ve done now, what other nutritious foods can give me that boost or sustain me for longer.

The Amount of Added Sugar in Popular Halloween Candy

To find out exactly how much added sugar is in some of the most popular types of Halloween candy, I went straight to the source. Note: this was all based on reading nutrition labels through in-store research. I did not need to bring home bags of Halloween candy in September.

** I did find that a different mix showed the Kit Kat Wafer Bars with 12g added sugars.

How to Indulge but Not Overdo

For most of us, it’s fine to indulge in a few pieces of Halloween candy, but the secret is not overdoing it. Here’s how I’m planning to navigate these tricky waters this year.

• Don’t buy loose bags of candy. We don’t need them, and despite what both of my dear grandmothers thought, we don’t need a candy bowl. This is a trap, or at least in my house it is. As far as I’m concerned, candy corn doesn’t come in 1-2 pieces. It’s a handful (or two) or nothing. Just in case you were wondering, there are 15 pieces of Brach’s classic Candy Corn in a serving which includes 22g of added sugars.
• Let yourself eat 3-4 pieces or whatever a serving size is indicated as in the above table on Halloween night. Pick your absolute favorites and then stop for the night.
• Choose no more than seven pieces of candy to have for the next week. Eat one piece a day if you want or even better, don’t eat it if you don’t want it. The point is that at most, give yourself one week of Halloween candy, one piece at a time. After that week, Halloween is done, over, time to move on.
• If you’re rationing candy for your children, put it out of your sight as well. When you get it for them, do it with them watching you. Yes, they will know where it is, but let’s be honest, they’re going to anyway. Doing it this way, will make it easier for you not to sneak any either.
• If you’re going to a Halloween party or if you’re taking your kids trick-or-treating, eat a regular healthy meal before you go. That way, you’re not hungry and are less likely to scavenge all night on candy.

Of course, if you know that sugar cravings are a problem for you, you may just want to steer clear of the Halloween candy entirely. There’s plenty of research that shows we can become dependent on, if not addicted to sugar, and just like any other addictive substance or activity, the best option is avoidance. Just don’t even put the temptation in front of you. If you do end up with candy duty, do it with a friend or have your spouse, partner or older kids help you so that you can interact with them and not the candy bucket.

Lean on Your Community

Is Halloween candy tough for you? If so, we’d love to hear from you and how you handle it in the comments below. If it’s not hard for you, please share your secrets on how you do that as well.

The post The Scariest Thing About Halloween Candy for Adults appeared first on Peppermint Tea.