Candy vs chocolates vs pastries

In My Humble Opinion
1

My 10yo daughter is slightly on the heavy side and we are trying to regulate her intake of sweets and are also encouraging exercise. Unfortunately she really likes candy, for example Haribos, Headbangers, Twizzlers, etc. Candy that is little more than sugar and artificial flavors. When we go out somewhere where snacks are available, she is constantly nagging us for candy. And my wife and I find ourselves in the surreal position of trying to get her to instead have a ‘healthy’ bar of chocolate, slice of cake, or donut. Yes, I know this is crazy and a piece of fruit would be much better, but that is not usually available in these places, and her friends are getting sweets so it is hard to exclude just her.

But aside from being told I am a bad parent, I was curious to hear how these different types of sweets compare in terms of nutritional value. Are candy, chocolates and pastries equally bad for you, or is there is spectrum of badness? I know that chocolate contains a bit of protein and antioxidants and many bars (e.g. Snickers) have nuts in them which are pretty healthy in themselves. And pastries might have fruit, eggs and a bit of (admittedly refined) flour. Are these healthier than candy? On the other hand, candy would have little or no fat content.

What do you think?

2

Sugar is sugar, and fat is fat, so I don’t think there is much difference between candies and pastries. It’s easy to compare the nutritional value of any commercial product since the information is printed on the package. If you walk into a bakery, that’s a different story. Sugar and carbohydrates raise your blood sugar and insulin levels, and if that goes on long enough it can lead to problems.

Perhaps more daily exercise would help, as well as packing healthy snacks she can eat in the car that may curb her appetite for sweet snacks (wishful thinking). Unfortunately, most eating habits are hard to break so don’t expect her to change what she wants anytime soon. A frank discussion with her pediatrician may be in order if you have any concerns about her health.

3

The lesser of the evils is dark chocolate.

There are numerous brands, but this is a good one. It’s certainly light years better than, say, Twizzlers, which are total garbage in comparison.

I hate to sound dramatic, but you very well could be in a battle for your daughter’s future health. It sounds like she could very well be a Type II diabetic later on in adult life if she doesn’t reel in her insatiable and constant desire for sugar.

4

My advice, not fighting the hypothetical, is to consider candies or sweets that have some fat or protein component to partially offset the raw sugar. So if it’s junk candy, peanut M&Ms, or at a higher scale, candied almonds (easy to make at home and with artificial sweeteners it’s a different sort of terrible!), or even dark chocolate covered pecans.

Would be my advice as an at-home mix. Maybe with one of the sugar/sweetener blends but it’s still a better option with all sugar if you’re not comfortable with the artificial stuff.

ETA - still a lot of calories when you’re having nuts, but as you said, slightly more useful calories.

5

The trick is to make candy an actual treat and not a go to snack. There is no need to have candy every day, that habit needs to get nipped in the bud. Having cake at a party with everyone else then becomes an actual treat. Having a desert on a special occasion becomes special. Maybe something sweet after some physical activity is justified.

I’ve had GF’s with good eating habits tell me these things. And when they told their mom they were hungry between meals mom would offer them a carrot or a piece of celery dipped in a small amount of peanut butter. As a parent its up to you to help guide your childs eating habits and explain why you are doing so. For example, tell them that eating croutons in your salad is the same as eating sugar cubes. Something they can relate to.

6

I doubt any issue that needs to be resolved here has much to do with the type of sweets she’s eating. I’d start by engaging with her to understand how she feels about her weight and appearance, and the rest of her life too. And to tell her about how you feel about it, and how you feel about your own weight and appearance and any times you’ve had to deal with it. And I think there’s also the possibility that any important problem to deal with here has nothing to do with weight, appearance, or eating sweets.

7

There is no single “healthy” metric where you can rank foods. How an individual body responds to input depends on multiple factors. Assuming nutritional needs are otherwise being met, excess calories are excess calories, regardless of the source. That said, some snacks are more calorically dense than others, and some may result in more long-term satiation than others. My understanding is that protein results in more satiation but I don’t have studies on hand to back that up.

8

Sugar doesn’t cause diabetes; but it can make you fat, which does tend to cause diabetes.

9

Yep, you’re right! In the case of this child, though, one does seem to be leading rapidly to the other.

10

Not all fat people are diabetic. Still as a society we consume way too much refined sugar than we need. I see it as always good advice to cut back on sugar, but then I am a diabetic. I just wish that my parents had been more informed, my dad might still be alive.

11

When I was a kid, I really craved sweets, though I know others didn’t. (I envied them.) Googling, there are prescription medicines now that will help to stop a craving for sugar. You might discuss this issue with your daughter’s pediatrician, though if you can resolve the issue without using meds, that’s preferable. As suggested, perhaps carry healthier snacks with you.

12

You’re right that dark chocolate is better than most alternatives, but good luck getting a kid to eat 92% cacao chocolate. Most adults I know won’t touch even the 60% stuff because they think it’s too bitter, and kids are more sensitive to bitter taste.

I myself enjoy one or two little squares of 85% cacao chocolate many days and find it tasty and remarkably filling and satisfying for only 55 or 110 kcal. But I never would have eaten it as a ten-year-old.

13

Oh sure, I don’t disagree.

I do think that kids’ taste buds are wired differently than adults’ taste buds. I mean, my kids (8 and 11) are similar snack fiends- if it’s salty, sweet, or fried, they’re all over it, and demand more. Meanwhile perfectly good stuff like a well-executed roast chicken is underappreciated.

And it’s not like they haven’t been raised on a diet of mostly scratch-cooked, well prepared food from home (we’re good cooks), so I feel like there’s something about the way they’re wired that makes them prefer stuff like french fries and chicken tenders, versus better, healthier foods.

14

Since this topic involves opinions as well as factual nutritional information, let’s move this to IMHO (from FQ).

Let’s all keep in mind that the OP is looking for actual comparisons between different sweets and not just advice about how to handle the situation.

15

OK, I got some factual answers, so thanks. And now, since we started already, (and since we are now in IMHO!) I wouldn’t mind continuing with the advice.

My daughter is 40th percentile for her height and about 60th for her weight, so that puts her in like the 80th for weight-for-height. That is generally considered overweight (disclaimer: I haven’t done the calculations lately so these numbers may not be completely correct, but the conclusion was mildly overweight).

It is true that she loves sweets, and she is drawn to candy much more than chocolate or pastries. But the odd thing is that she really doesn’t eat that much otherwise. She would be happy to skip breakfast, and she seldom wants more than one serving of food any other time. She does like fruit, and will eat lots of fruit if we let her. But I know fruit has sugar too, so we moderate that as well.

We have spoken to her pediatrician and even took her to a nutritionist. Both said that they don’t consider her to be overweight, despite the numbers. I thought it might be a metabolic issue, but her blood work tested normal for that too.

So it’s a bit of a mystery. We are encouraging her to get more exercise. She is on the primary school soccer team and also rides horses, but that is literally only 3 hours per week total. So for now we are doing our best and just waiting to see whether she outgrows it. Oh, and we are VERY careful never to say anything about her weight. We try to warn her off sweets with references to diabetes (which she does not associate with obesity) and cavities.

16

My grandsons are chunky. They eat anything that doesn’t eat them.
Of course I worry.
I must say they are very active. The only time they’re still is during homeschooling sessions with Mom.

She’s had them looked at by the doctor and he says alot of it is body type but there is some excess.
They like candy but it’s not top priority with them. A bag of chips would be more like it. They never get soda at home so they always beg unsuspecting adults for these. Sodas are bad, folks.

Maybe your daughter is just in a habit of asking for and getting (in the past) candy. Just keep saying “no, not this time” maybe she’ll move on.

17

thanks. Firm parenting is always a good idea.

I wanted to add that my girls (I have two) eat potato chips maybe once a month and soda never. The disinterest in soda is amazing as they never tasted the stuff before the elder (now 13yo) was 8yo and neither of them likes it. So they literally never drink it*

*I tried to get them to like sparkling water as this is all I drink and they don’t much like that either

18

I eat very high % low-sugar chocolate that has high fiber and is very satiating. In fact I can enjoy a baker’s square (or 2 or 3) and it feels like an indulgent dessert I can put down. However, I know that I am an outlier for adults let alone sugar-crazed kids.

My daughter really likes fruit, especially berries. Yogurt parfaits with real fruit, that sort of thing.

I don’t really crave sugar, but if I start eating something like gummy bears or any of those sour sugar things, I can’t stop. I got some $1 small (700 calories, though) bag of gummy bear things my last grocery trip on an impulse, thought I would have a serving or 2 but that bad was gone before I got home. That was the calorie equivalent of around a 1/2 lb of beef with none of the protein or nutrients. I know plenty of people who drink sugar constantly and eat candy for meals. i find it revolting, but I understand the triggers.

Pastries? Probably better than candies on the whole, but it depends. My daughter will eat croissants and that sort of thing, but we will limit donuts. Ah, she’s also a fan of chocolate chip muffins. Not great, but still better than a bag of candy.

19

Calorie wise, I think the chocolate and pastries will be worse, since they have the sugar and a lot of fat as well. Fat is more calorie dense than sugar. And a serve of pastry tends to be bigger than a serve of gummi bears. 13 haribo gummi bears are 100 calories. A small apple danish from Kroger is 220.

Fruit has sugar, but I thought because it has a lot of fibre the sugar is more ‘slow release’, and less likely to cause blood sugar spikes and insulin resistance. Plus it has healthy vitamins and minerals. I would let her eat as much as she wants (or as much as I could afford). But I like fruit and my fruit intake was restricted as a kid, so I’m biased.

20

Yes on the fiber, but be very careful with modern fruit. A lot of varieties of super-sweet fruit have been grown, which may be extremely tasty, but will spike your blood sugar quite badly. Again, there is no perfect answer, and you’re 100% right on being careful with fat calories, but I’m still advising with homemade candied almonds. But even though we’ve left FQ, this time I’ll include a link for a one ounce portion (roughly 23).

Sure, you are getting 164 total kcal, with 14g of fat, but it’s mostly unsaturated (all but 1.1g), and along with it, 6g of protein and 3.5g of fiber. With that combo, you’ll have a much slower blood sugar spike, a greater satiety, and measurable but not large amounts of iron and calcium. (using a zero calorie sweetener)

But as with all things, it is absolutely going to come down to portion control - if you eat them by the handful, you’re still screwed. What might work is helping the child set up a calorie allowance of sorts - tell them they can have whatever they want (within reason) but they only have 12-1400 calories a day to work with minus the family meals. So say 400 or so “bonus” calories depending.

If they want that chocolate bar, then offer the comparison. Say a Hershey Special dark (about as dark as most kids like), where 6 mini-bars (to aid in portion control) is 440 calories. That’s their whole days worth basically.

If they want more, maybe let them save it up if they want to do ‘cheat days’ or the equivalent. But if they’re in control of it, they may do a better job.

May. It worked for me at the 10-12 year old range where I got to budget all my ‘allowance’ on a vacation trip if there was something I wanted, but it won’t work for all.

But offering controlled portions and healthier options is a great choice.