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A fun sized history lesson on fun sized candy bars

Shouldn’t “fun sized” candy bars be really big and the ones given out on Halloween you eat in one bite be named something less rosy? It’s a question just about every kid in the past 50 years has asked themselves on Oct. 31. But just when did these bite-sized Butterfingers and snack-sized Snickers become the norm? Well, it seems the first shrunken versions of popular candy bars can be credited to the former Chicago-based Curtiss Candy Company. Now part of Nestlé thanks to a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company produced a “Buddie” size Baby Ruth bar in the early 1930s. “Junior” sized versions of their Baby Ruth and Butterfingers candy bars came along in the 1950s. Hershey also got in on the game early when it began selling its sleek “Miniatures” candy bars in 1939. Small candy bars had been well established by the time candy manufacturer Mars…

The unhealthiest Halloween candies

Halloween may be mostly for kids, but the calorie count of the candy-centric holiday affects everyone. The American Heart Association says that an adult woman shouldn’t have more than 25 grams of sugar per day; for men, it’s 37.5 grams. Many of the most popular candies of the season pack a huge amount of this sugar in just one or two fun-sized servings. The worst part is that sometimes we snack on these small sizes without much thought. Here are a few of the worst offenders: Reese’s Minis Per 3 pieces: 108 calories, 6.4 grams fat (2.2 grams saturated), 9.9 grams sugar One serving, or 9 Reese’s minis, packs half of your maximum daily about of sugar and tons of fat into just a few small bites. Hershey’s Take 5 Per snack-sized candy bar: 100 calories, 5 grams fat (2.5 grams saturated), 9 grams sugar The ingredients sound simple enough — chocolate, pretzels, peanut butter,…

Your favorite candy bars will have less calories by 2022

Candy companies are responding to consumer cries for healthier foods and smaller portion sizes. More than a dozen candy companies including Mars, Nestle, Ferrara, Lindt & Sprungli and Ferrero Rocher, promised the Partnership for a Healthier America, a foundation chaired by former first lady Michelle Obama, to reduce the size of 50 percent of their products to less than 200 calories by 2022, reported The Washington Post. As part of the initiative, the companies also agreed to include front-of-package nutrition information for no less than 90 percent of their products. “It’s a big commitment, and a big shift,” John Downs, chief executive of the National Confectioners Association told The Washington Post. But, he added, “obviously there’s an important and ongoing conversation around sugar in the U.S., and around the world … and our industry has been discussing how we can be a productive part of that conversation.” About 30 percent of American candies have already…