Nutrition Action Healthletter
October 1997 — U.S. Edition

One's a "Low Fat Food." Another has "30% Less Fat." Still another has "100% Vitamin C."

Are they frozen dinners? Whole grain cereals? Bottles of orange juice?

No such luck. We're talking candy. The original junk food. Chocolate, hard candy, granola bars, fruit snacks. You can't walk down the candy aisle of a supermarket these days without being impressed by all the claims. Candy companies are betting that you'll think a low-fat diet is filled with Twizzlers and SnackWell's rather than fruits and vegetables.

True, some companies have cut some of the fat out of some of the fattiest items. But does that mean they're healthy?

Don't bet your teeth on it.

Even fat-free vitamin-fortified candies are loaded with sugar, the stuff that causes tooth decay and squeezes healthy foods out of your diet. Every time you reach for candy-fat-free or otherwise-you've missed an opportunity to eat fruits, vegetables, or other foods that might reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and obesity.

Yes, we know. Halloween is on the way. The best treat to give neighborhood kids in these everything'sgotta-be-tamper-proof times: wiggly worms, stickers, or other tiny toys. If nothing but candy will do, use our chart to avoid the worst offenders. You could always hand out low-fat granola bars -- and toothbrushes.

Chocolate

Chocolate is loaded with sugar and fat ... and not just any fat.

A single Hershey's Milk Chocolate bar swallows a fifth of your day's quota of total fat. Not terrific. But you've also gobbled up halfyour saturated fat. To your arteries, it looks like a Quarter Pounder.

Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, KitKat, Milky Way, NutRageous, Snickers, and most other chocolate bars use up at least a quarter of a day's sat fat.

Ditto for M&M's Plain, Whitman's Sampler Assorted Chocolates, Hershey's Hugs, and many other chocolate candies. Worse yet are Andes Creme de Menthe Thins. They're close to a Quarter Pounder with cheese. Some snack.

What's a chocolate-lover to do? For the least fat, try York Peppermint Patties, junior Mints, or Riesen Chocolate Chews. SnackWell's Dips and Clusters are also lower in fat, even if you don't subtract the fat that's been replaced by Salatrim-a new reduced-calorie fat that is poorly absorbed by the body. The additive appears to be safe, but until we take a closer look, don't go overboard on it.

Hershey's Sweet Escapes also clock in at the lower-fat end of the chart. Instead of solid chocolate, they give you chocolate-coated wafers, caramel, rice, or corn. That's not unusual. More sugary filling has kept 3Musketeers lower in fat for decades.

In contrast, Mars says that it cuts the fat in its Milky Way Lite to half that of a regular Milky Way by using skim milk instead of whole, less cocoa butter, and polydextrose, a safe bulking agent that's often used in fatfree salad dressings.

Just keep in mind that the sprinkling of milk and nuts in some lowfat chocolates doesn't make up for their high dose of empty-calorie sugar.

Granola Bars

The "fruit" in Quaker Chewy Low Fat Fruit & Yogurt Chip Strawberry Blast Granola Bars is "strawberry flavored fruit bits" (that's a touch of strawberry and apple pur6e concentrates that have been flavored with sugar, oil, and red dye). The "yogurt chips" are mostly sugar and oil, with a smidgen of yogurt powder. Yum.

Some oats and lots of sugar. That's what you get from most low-fat granola bars. It doesn't matter if they're filled with fake fruit or M&M's or bits of Snickers. To find the best, look for one or two grams of fiber. The more fiber, the more grains.

True. Fat-free and low-fat granola bars have less fat (zero to three grams) than regular granola bars (four to six grams) or most chocolate bars (eight to 17 grams). They're one step up from candy. But they're more like an oatmeal cookie than a bowl of oatmeal.

Fruit-Flavored Candy

There oughta be a law.

Why does the Food and Drug Administration allow companies to slap drawings and photos of fruits across their candy packages and use names like Fruit Gems, Gummy Fruits, and Fruit Snacks? Fruit-flavored candy is more like it. Some of the worst offenders:

The bottom line: While many people know that "fruit snacks" aren't as good as fruit, they think they're better than candy. Well, they're not better enough to matter.

Stretch Island is the only company we've found that makes candy out of real fruit. Its Fruit Leathers are mostly apple (Regardless of the flavor) and they're not full of vitamins. But they're still better than fruit-flavored candy.

Other Candy

Lifesavers, Skittles, Necco wafers, Twizzlers. When you ignore the serving sizes on the packages and compare these and other non-chocolate candies ounce for ounce, something amazing happens. The numbers are almost identical: fat (none, or close to none), calories (100 to 120), carbohydrates (20 to 30 grams).

(Our chart for candy lists "carbohydrates" instead of ,,sugar." That's because some corn syrups don't show up as sugar in laboratory tests but they do register as carbohydrates. And almost all of the carbs in candy are sugars.)

It's really not much of a surprise that all candies are about equal, since they're just sugar, gums, and the latest in artificial colors and flavors.

Our suggestion: If you eat candy, keep to the less-gooey ones, which aren't as prone to get stuck between your teeth and cause cavities. And remember: These may be "fat-free foods," but they're not carrot sticks and cantaloupe.

The information for this article was compiled by Trish Trainor, Ingrid VanTuinen, and Wendy Meltzer.

How Sweet It Is

We ranked chocolate and granola bars from least to most saturated fat in a single bar (or two bars, for the smallest ones). If you're the kind of person who's partial to kind size of who doesn't stop at one, make sure to multiply the numbers before you open the wrapper.

We ranked chocolate candies from least to most saturaated fat in a typical serving (about 1 and half ounces).

We ranked fruit-flavored and other candies from least to most carbohydrates in a single-serving packet or in a one-ounce serving for candies that come in larger packagers.

Chocolate Bars (# of ounces in 1 bar) Calories Total Fat (g) Saturated Fat (g) Sugar* (g)

York Peppermint Pattie (1.5)

170 3 2 27

PayDay (1.8)

250 13 2 21

Milky Way Lite (1.6)

170 5 3 24

Hershey's Sweet Escapes (2 bars - 1.4)

150 6 3 21

3 Musketeers (2.1)

260 8 5 40

Milky Way (2.0)

 270 10 5 35

Hershey's 5th Avenue (2.0)

 280 12 5 26

Mars (1.8)

 240 13 5 26

Twix Carmel (2 bars - 2.0)

 280 14 5 27

Snickers (2.1)

 280 14 5 30

NutRageous (1.9)

 290 17 5 23

Tablerone Swiss Milk Chocolate (1.2)

190 10 6 21

Caramello (1.6)

 220 10 6 22

Butterfinger (2.1)

280 11 6 29

Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme (1.5)

 230 12 6 20

Heath (1.4)

210 13 6 24

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (2 cups - 1.6)

250 14 6 21

Whatchamacallit (1.7)

 220 10 7 21

Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate (1.2)

190 11 7 20

KitKat (1.5)

220 11 7 21

Dove Dark or Milk Chocolate (1.3)

200 12 7 20

Nestle Crunch (1.5)

230 12 7 24

Baby Ruth (2.1)

280 12 7 25

Hershey's Milk Chocolate w/Almonds (1.4)

 230 14 7 18

Mr. Goodbar (1.7)

270 17 7 21

Almond Joy (1.7)

 240 13 8 22

Hershey's Symphony (1.5)

240 15 8 19

Hershey's Milk Chocolate (1.5)

230 13 9 22

Mounds (1.9)

 250 13 11 21

Chocolate Candy (# of pieces in 1.5 box)

Snack Wells Chocolate Chews (7)

160 3 2 27

Junior Mints (17)

160 3 2 33

Riesen Chocolate Chews (5)

180 7 3 20

SnackWell's Carmel Nut Clusters (3)

140 5 4 19

Raisinets (45)

180 7 4 25

M&M's Peanut (17)

200 11 4 20

Godiva Open Oyster (2)

230 12 4 22

SnackWell's Raisin Dips (64)

150 5 5 28

Milk Duds (13)

180 6 5 22

Russell Stover Assorted Chocolates (3)

190 8 5 22

M&M's Plain (45)

200 8 5 26

Whitman's Sampler Assorted Chocolate (3)

190 9 5 20

Rolo (7)

 200 9 5 26

Ferrero Rocher (3)

 230 15 5 17

Perugina Baci (3)

240 16 5 18

Whoppers (17)

180 7 6 30

Butterfinger BB's (15)

 200 9 6 38

Hershey's Hugs (8)

210 12 6 20

Fannie May Pixie or Fanny Farmer Pecan Dixie (2)

 240 13 6 14

Hershey's Hugs with Almonds (9)

230 13 6 19

Reese's Pieces (51)

200 9 7 21

Hershey's Kisses with Almonds (8)

 210 13 7 17

Hersheys Kisses (8)

210 12 8 20

Andes Creme de Menthe Thins (8)

210 13 12 21

Granola Bars (# of oz. in 1 bar)

Fi-Bar Fat Free (1.0)

100 0 0 9

Barbara's Nature's Choice Fat Free (1.0)

 90 0 0 12

Health Valley Fat-Free (1.5)

140 0 0 14

Kellogg's Low Fat Crunchy Almond & Brown Sugar (0.7)

 80 2 0 6

Barbara's Nature's Choice (0.7)

80 2 0 7

Nature Valley Low Fat (1.0)

110 2 0 7

Quaker Chewy Low Fat (1.0)

110 2 1 10

Fi-Bar Low Fat (1.2)

120 2 1 12

Kudos M&M's or Snickers Bars (0.8)

100 3 1 9

Quaker Reduced Fat Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunk (1.0)

 120 3 1 9

SnackWell's Chewy, Carmel (1.0)

 120 3 1 13

Nabisco Chips Ahoy! or Oreo (1.0)

120 4 1 10

Nature Valley (2 bars - 1.7)

200 6 1 14

Kellogg's Rice Krispies Chewy (1.0)

120 4 2 8

Quaker Chewy Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip (1.0)

120 4 2 9

Fi-Bar Chewy & Nutty (1.2)

140 4 2 11

SnackWell's Chewy, Oatmeal Raisin (1.0)

110 3 3 14

SnackWell's Chewy, Original (1.0)

110 3 3 14

Kudos Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Fudge, or Peanut Butter (1.0)

120 5 3 12

Fruit Candy

Calories Carbohydrates (g)

Stretch Island Fruit Leathers (2 pieces - 1 oz.)

90 23

Fruit-Flavored Candy

Betty Crocker Fruit-By-The-Foot (1 pieces - 0.7 oz.)

 80 17

Farley's Fruit Snacks (8-13 pieces - 0.9 oz.)

80 19

Betty Crocker Fruit Gushers (10 pieces - 0.9 oz.)

90 20

Brach's Hi-C Gummy Fruits (9 pieces- 1 oz.)

90 21

Lifesavers Gummy Savers (7 pieces - 1 oz.)

 90 21

Amazin' Fruit Gummy Bears (12 pieces - 1 oz.)

90 22

Juicefuls Assorted Fruit Gummies (9 pieces - 1 oz.)

100 22

Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-Ups (2 rolls - 1 oz.)

100 24

Starburst Fruit Chews (6 pieces - 1 oz.)

120 24

Brach's Smucker's Jelly Beans (17 pieces - 1 oz.)

 110 26

Sunkist Fruit Gems (3 pieces - 1 oz.)

 110 26

Other Candy (# of pieces in 1 oz.)

Smarties (4)

100 20

Twizzlers Strawberry (4)

90 22

Tootsie Roll (4)

110 22

Good & Plenty (22)

100 24

Jelly Belly Sours (24)

100 25

Laffy Taffy Chews (3)

110 25

Now and Later (7)

110 25

Skittles (27)

110 25

Hershey's Tastetations (6)

 120 25

Brach's Candy Corn (19)

100 26

Dum Dums (4)

100 26

Spree (15)

110 26

SweeTARTS (15)

110 26

Werther's Original (6)

120 26

Mentos (9)

90 27

Necco wafers (20)

110 27

Lifesavers Five Flavor (11)

110 28

Jolly Rancher (5)

120 28

Nerds (2 Tbs.)

120 28

Brach's Star Brites (6)

120 30

Tootsie Pops (2)

120 32

Saf-T-Pops (3)

130 33

Charm's Blow Pops (2)

140 34

Blinking = Worst Bite (contains at least 8 grams of saturated fat).

* includes fruit and milk sugars.

Source: Manufacturers

The use of information from this article for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited without written permission from CSPI.

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