Easy Tips for a Healthier Easter Basket

What child doesn’t love the surprise of a basket filled with yummy goodies on Easter morning? Unwrapping and enjoying all those pastel-colored foiled candies will certainly be one of the highlights of your little one’s day.

However, while your child is diving into that basket full of decadent sweets, what you may not realize is that he or she could potentially be eating a load that tops 3,000 sugar-laden calories – and that’s before the giant chocolate bunny even makes its appearance.

The good news though is that unlike other holidays like Halloween, you actually do have control over what goes in your child’s basket. With just a few simple swaps and a little imagination, you can still keep the focus of your child’s basket on fun – and not all the extra sugar.

For example, you can easily swap a 9-ounce “personal-sized” bag of Jelly Belly’s Deluxe Easter Mix for a smaller 1-ounce packet, and you’ll save more than 700 calories and 140 grams of sugar.

You can also chuck that gigantic bag of Easter Pastel M&M’s (at 256 calories and 33 grams of sugar for every quarter-cup handful) in favor of individually wrapped chocolates such as Nestle Crunch NestEggs (38 calories and 4.2 grams sugar each) or Hershey’s Solid Milk Chocolate Mini Eggs (28.5 calories and 3.3 grams sugar, each). Instead of six Cadbury Crème Eggs for 900 calories and 120 grams of sugar, go with one full-sized Cadbury egg and half a dozen Cadbury Mini Eggs (95 calories and 13.5 grams sugar for six).

As for that giant chocolate Easter bunny, by simply downsizing to a not-so-giant one, you can slash more than 1,400 calories and 140 grams of sugar. Remember to look for one the size of your hand.

So by just making a few minor tweaks here and there and adding some non-candy surprises, you can keep your child’s Easter basket thousands of calories and hundreds of grams of sugar lighter — but still packed with tons of Easter fun and favorites.

To check out some ideas for non-candy Easter basket fillers, plus to see how some of your favorite Easter treats measure up when it comes to sugar and calories, read Molly’s full article on Nola.com.