The best candy brands to consider for filling your child’s Easter basket with treats that are delicious and won’t harm their health with toxic additives.
Teaching candy moderation with kids is high on the list of important health habits to learn.
I don’t think it is ever a good idea to let kids eat candy and sweets in an unrestrained manner even during a holiday like Easter.
An unbalanced approach to diet where candy is concerned can lead to sugar addiction issues later.
The goal is to choose whole food treats that are delicious, but at the same time, do not contain high fructose corn syrup, additives, chemicals, or artificial colorings/natural flavorings that could harm health.
I also favor putting just a few items in the basket even if all qualify in the “healthier” category. Why do kids need piles of candy?
With these goals in mind, below are the best candies to consider for Easter baskets (or any other appropriate holiday).
I’ve combed through all the brands I could find at my local health food stores, and here’s what I found!
Best Candy Brands
I’ve only found three candy brands that I feel 100% comfortable buying for my family.
While these are widely available commercial brands, if you have a local artisan making candy in small batches by hand, this would be another source to investigate in your community!
Raw Honey Mint Patties
Heavenly Organics mint chocolate honey patties have been a favorite treat of our family for many years. They contain just three ingredients:
Ingredients: Raw organic white honey, unsweetened organic chocolate, peppermint oil
Your family will be thrilled with them too. They taste fantastic!
White Chocolate Nut Butter Cups
Giving chocolate to children is certainly a controversial subject within the traditional food community.
My approach while my three were growing up was to let them have healthy forms of chocolate a few times a year. My goal was to not raise them in a bubble to avoid a boomerang effect later.
If your preferred approach is to not allow chocolate at all or to minimize it like we did, then these organic white chocolate nut butter cups are a good brand to consider for the occasional treat.
The presence of the roasted nut butter cuts down the amount of carbs in the candy significantly.
Heavenly Safe Chocolates
The Easter and other holiday candies from Heavenly Safe Chocolates contain only three ingredients:
Organic Cane Sugar, Unsweetened Chocolate, Cocoa Butter [nondairy]
My husband and I would get the Easter Bunny lollipop for our kids’ baskets once they were school-age.
None of them eat hardly any chocolate as adults, so a balanced “moderation is key” approach seemed to work well over the long term.
“Good” (but not “Best”)
These brands below are acceptable but not “best” as I feel they are too high in chocolate and refined organic sugar.
They also contain a few additives such as denatured milk powder, sweetened condensed milk, and/or food gums that are optimally avoided if a better brand is available.
Brands to Avoid
I used to recommend Yummy Earth lollipops, gummy bears, and similar candies.
However, further research on the dangers of natural flavors has caused me to reconsider this ingredient as actually safe.
“Natural flavors” aren’t really that natural after all! Worse, they contain highly toxic solvent residues when lab-tested!
Thus, I would suggest avoiding even organic candy brands that list any type of “natural flavors” on the label.
“Avoid” brands include:
- Honest gummies
- Annie’s gummies
- Yummy Earth
- Surf Sweets
- Smart Sweets
Have you found any other brand of candy that you feel is safe? Please share it with us!
Kristina I just read this post and even though Easter has paessd I thought I’d add a comment. My issue is just the opposite: for years I filled the Easter baskets, hid the candy, got everyone off to Church, made a big meal, etc. Now MY children have grown up, moved away (too far for us to be together for just a day), and have children of their own. To say our Easter traditions have evolved is an understatement! All of our grandchildren receive Easter cards with a treat inside (money, gift cards). The Don and I now invite friends for a nice Easter dinner (with ham always the centerpiece). We still celebrate but our traditions different and that’s how life goes, I think!
Kyla, I’d love to see your cake recipe!
Great article, thank you! What would you suggest we do with the candy from Grandma’s? It seems that they always get a sugar overload there. I have considered paying them for every piece of candy that they bring home?? Any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much!
This blog is content amazing information about Easter gift which is very useful for me. It very important information about Easter festival.
Thank you very much for this great information.
Easter Gift Basket Ideas For Children
What great ideas for kids at easter! I also like to make Easter games and Easter coloring pages and include them as Easter treats.Easter Activities
I have found the Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops at both Abby's and Nutrition Smart which are both in Carrollwood on North Dale Mabry. They were available individually at the checkout counter in Abby's (only $.25 each – not sure if they sell them by the bag there) and definitely by the large bag at Nutrition Smart (don't remember price). Haven't checked yet for the Gummy Bears or the Mint Patties.
I did notice the gummy bears have citric acid in them, though
My husband and I have decided that we are going to give our son a game or activity and set up a scavenger hunt to find it. We bought a very small basket for him to collect the eggs with his clues. He's only eight months but we hope if we start him off right we won't have to worry about the expectation of candy. Plus we get to have fun doing the scavenger hunts until he is old enough to do them by himself.
Healthfood stores should carry them (Abby's in Carrollwood has the raw honey mint patties). If not, ask them to start stocking them! Most healthfood stores are more than happy to oblige.
We also got a few rolls of quarters and put them in the plastic eggs and hid them around the house… I think they liked that more then the candy.
r
Sarah, where do you purchase those items in the Tampa Bay area? I am just thrilled to find some alternatives to the garbage sold at the big chain stores for Easter candy.