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Candy Expo Showcases Healthy Snacks. Indeed?

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In a sign of the times, the Sweets & Snacks Expo earlier this week in Chicago focused on healthier treats.

Saleswomen for Hershey Co. handed out Reese’s Minis, chocolate-peanut butter cups the size of marbles, which they touted as ideal for portion control. Nearby, staff members for candy behemoth Mars chatted up their sugar-free Dove chocolates and the company’s goodnessKnows snack squares containing “phytonutrients that have been shown to help support healthy circulation.” read more from the LA Times…

While this trend toward healthy treats may sound like a great idea, we’d like to challenge the notion that snacks have to be nutritious for us. Candy should be a tasty interlude that we enjoy every once in while. If we realize that theses are treats, and NOT a part of our daily nutritional requirements, we won’t go looking for phytonutrients, antioxidants, and other health benefits in our chocolate bars. We’ll be getting them from real food.

Granted, removing trans fatty oils from candy bars is a great idea. But that doesn’t mean we need to eat one after every meal.

The greatest innovation in candy will be when people start consuming much smaller amounts than they currently do. But that’s not something the companies are interested in. Herein lies the conflict between health and profits.

What to do at the supermarket:

Try to limit the number of items you purchase in the snack aisles. Think of fruit as the first go to snack option instead of candy.

Have a great holiday weekend. To our friends in uniform, and our fallen brethren – we salute you!

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  • http://www.betterschoolfood.org Dr. Susan Rubin

    And the dentists continue to laugh all the way to the bank.

  • http://the50besthealthblogs.blogspot.com/ The 50 Best Health Blogs

    QUOTE:
    “Try to limit the number of items you purchase in the snack aisles.”

    Forget the snack aisles. The real danger is the candy rack right there in the checkout lane.

  • Jason

    I think a lot of people would be surprised how tasty a fresh, homemade trail mix can be. There’s a lot of flavor in dried fruits, seeds, and nuts (if a simple piece of fruit won’t suffice).

    I don’t see a need to grab something off the shelf that is full of artificial flavors, preservatives, unhealthy fats, etc. Keep it simple.

  • http://www.myheartsisters.org Carolyn Thomas

    Expensive bottled ‘vitamin’ water, doughey white bread “fortified” with Omega 3 and flax seed, Froot Loops bragging about fibre content – it’s all about disguising junk ‘food’ (and I use that term loosely) with a thin veil of fantasy nutrition.

    Last year, as you wrote about here, Dannon was slammed with a $35 million false advertising legal settlement for its Activia line of yogurt. This is how we are going to stop this opportunistic marketing avalanche – either in the courts challenging false claims, or as you are doing so well here on this site, by educating the consumer.

    I like Michael Pollan’s wise advice: “Never buy anything you’ve ever seen advertised!”

    Cheers,
    Carolyn
    http://www.ethicalnag.org

  • Lea G

    No kidding! And it’s so fun checking out with a 3 year old asking for each candy bar one right after the other. @The 50 Best Health Blogs

  • http://rooibeeredtea.com Shane

    The other problem with those little tiny candies is that we still want to finish the bag. Easiest thing to do is not buy them at all.

  • http://www.livingitupcornfree.com kc

    There is a very simple, logical reason that sweet treats were eaten only on holidays and special occasions traditionally. They are much more labor-intensive to prepare and use up a lot of expensive ingredients – they are self-limiting. Try making all your treats from scratch with pure organic ingredients and you will realize quickly that it is easier to eat nutrient dense meals and leave little room for “treats”. We do still enjoy treats but it is more on the level of once or twice a month as opposed to once a day. If you consider that one batch of Blondies uses up 3 sticks of pastured, organic butter and 3 organic pastured eggs and 3 cups of raw organic cane sugar and one teaspoon of ground vanilla beans, you will see that it is almost impossible to justify making them budget-wise (much less nutritionally).