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Oct 20, 2023

11 Keto

When you're on a diet that essentially forbids the consumption of added sugar,

When you're on a diet that essentially forbids the consumption of added sugar, it makes participating in Halloween a bit challenging. Of course, you could go all contrarian like the dentist on your street and hand out toothpaste to anyone who will accept it. However, this choice could result in a holiday redecorating of your property that involves toilet paper, tossed eggs, and a flaming bag of Fido nuggets.

Instead, why not play it safe and share some keto-friendly candy? There are a number of companies making them, and many of these low-sugar, low-carb treats are getting rave reviews. Will monk fruit-sweetened chocolate bark be a perfectly acceptable substitute for a perennial Halloween favorite like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? Maybe not, but most people will agree it's more in the spirit of the holiday than a travel tube of Aquafresh. With this in mind, consider the following keto, Halloween-friendly candies.

These candies might seem like an iconic American treat that has been around forever, but the truth about gummy bears is that they are neither American in origin nor have they been in the US for that long. German confectioner Hans Riegel created what he called "dancing bears" in 1922. In 1960, people began referring to them as gummy bears, and Americans started bringing them stateside in the 1980s (via Smithsonian Magazine). While the original candies are made with gelatin and processed sugars, there are now many different kinds of keto-friendly versions, like Scrummy Gummy Bears, which are made with plant fiber and natural sugars.

Siouxie Boshoff was inspired to start the company behind Scrummy Gummy Bears while diagnosed with lipedema. This long-term health condition causes an irregular distribution of fat in the lower body. Boshoff says to manage her health, she keeps a close eye on everything she eats and "reads every label" of food packages. This passion for eating healthy drove her to create The Scrummy Sweets Co.

So are keto-friendly gummy bears created by an American health obsessive any good? If you're looking for a low-guilt treat that will help you maintain ketosis, these candies are a sound option. If you're expecting Haribo clones, you'll probably be disappointed.

Founded in 2012, Keto Bars is dedicated to making keto-friendly snack bars that taste homemade. In addition to making these morsels, the company also has a regularly-updated blog full of advice on maintaining a keto diet that goes far beyond eating their products. If you want to learn about things like doing keto on a budget or keto baking essentials, this is a good site to follow.

The company compares its mint chocolate bars to the Girl Scouts' Thin Mint cookies, and — minus the cookie bit — it's a fair comparison. The bars, however, are made with natural ingredients like chocolate liquor, almonds, dried coconut, stevia, and cocoa powder, according to the company website.

Sporting 15 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of sugar, these mint chocolate bars are a viable option for those on the keto diet. Some say the mint takes more of a backseat than usual for candy (via YouTube). This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the ingredient can easily overwhelm some of chocolate's more subtle flavors. As a result, these bars tend to feature a deep, intense chocolate flavor.

"Handing out nuts on Halloween is un-American," we hear you saying. Au contraire! Nuts are actually what some Americans ate on Halloween in the early 20th century — before candy became de rigueur. During the early 1900s, it was common for people to share both fruit and nuts on the holiday. Passing out candy started to become popular in the 1920s and 30s. However, sugar rationing during the Great Depression and World War II kept the tradition from gaining traction until the second half of the 20th century (via CNN).

Fast forward to today, and old is new again. Keto Farms' candied nuts are packaged by the serving and healthier to eat than the standard sugary sweets, which should score points with those trying to be responsible on Halloween. According to the official website, the brand was founded by two guys who kept falling off the keto wagon. The company they created is dedicated to making snacks that satisfy cravings while supporting the diet.

The candied nuts come in three varieties: butter toffee peanuts, cocoa-dusted almonds, and maple pecans. Containing just 1 or 2 net carbohydrates, the individual portions help because these morsels are pretty craveable.

As the primary goal of following the keto diet, ketosis is a metabolic state that is said to convey all kinds of health benefits. According to a research review published in the journal Molecular Metabolism, one of the benefits of ketosis is creating a metabolic environment that seems unfavorable to cancer cells.

After finding out he was genetically predisposed to cancer, entrepreneur Alex Bird adopted the keto diet and went on to found kiss my keto, a company that makes keto-friendly foods. Bird's initial struggle to maintain the diet with foods he enjoyed was the inspiration behind the company and its products.

Kiss my keto offers a line of chocolate bars with varieties that include dark chocolate, pumpkin seeds with sea salt, roasted almonds, and toasted hazelnut. While many keto chocolate products tend to skew toward bitter flavors, some say the chocolate in kiss my keto bars offers a smooth, milky flavor (via YouTube).

The problems with using kiss my keto bars as Halloween candy is cost and size. Each bar has multiple servings, and it can be a bit pricey. So unless you're looking to be an incredibly generous giver of candy this Halloween, you might want these to be more of a personal holiday treat.

Project 7 started as an artisanal organic candy company but recently switched to specialize in low-sugar, low-carb candies. The brand calls its candies keto-friendly but not keto-certified. For those looking to maintain ketosis, Project 7 does recommend consulting with a doctor or nutritionist about how eating Project 7 candies could impact their diet.

The brand's keto-friendly gummies do not contain gelatin and are low in sugar. As a result, they have a stickier texture than conventional gummy candies, and they don't have the same level of sweetness. That's not to say these treats are bad, but you shouldn't go in thinking they are a like-for-like substitute for your favorite Haribo gummy flavor.

All four gummy varieties available — gummy bears, sour gummy worms, sour fruit gummies, and sour apple rings — contain 3 grams of sugar and 60 calories per pack. Because of the relatively high-calorie count, those looking to remain in ketosis shouldn't eat an entire package at once.

If you're trying to maintain a keto diet, you probably gave up the (somewhat dangerous) habit of licking raw brownie batter off a mixing spoon. Evolved is here to right that wrong with its chocolate-covered brownie batter bars.

Certified gluten-free, USDA organic, and ingredients ethically sourced by the Rainforest Alliance, Evolved is a company that prides itself on developing delicious keto-friendly chocolate with "zero compromises." Critically, Evolved emphasizes that their products are "food, not candy."

While that point is up for debate, the brand's brownie bars are definitely keto-friendly, with just 3 grams of net carbs and 14 grams of fat per serving. The company also backs up its premium ingredient claim by making these snacks from almonds, cacao, cashews, and pink sea salt. Rather than refined sugar, the bars are sweetened with monk fruit extract. The result is low-sugar chocolate that is sure to please even the pickiest Halloween candy snobs.

Celebrity-owned alcohol brands may get all the headlines, but stars are behind-the-scenes owners of all kinds of products, including keto-friendly Halloween candy. Case in point: Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds owns a controlling stake in HighKey, a maker of low-sugar, low-carb treats. He also voices the brand's mascot, Sugar Panda, in a series of subversive video ads (via People). HighKey is also backed by Moon Cheese CEO John Gibb, a co-founder.

With connections to an established food professional and a Hollywood leading man, HighKey has all kinds of stardust sprinkled over its keto-friendly treats. The caramel nut clusters are made with whole, clean ingredients and sweetened with a combination of allulose, monk fruit extract, and stevia extract. As you might suspect, these candies are a bit pricey. However, they are staggeringly good for chocolates without any added sugar. They feature a perfectly gooey texture and just the right amount of sweetness. In addition to being keto-friendly, this candy is gluten-free, paleo-friendly, and low-carb.

In 1994, former model Lizanne Falsetto developed high-protein, low-sugar snack bars because there was nothing like it on the market, according to Forbes. Falsetto later launched the thinkThin brand and developed a line of low-carb products in the early 2000s, just as the Atkins diet was reaching peak popularity. After the trend crashed, Falsetto restructured the company and its product line, pivoting away from its low-carb focus.

Today, a major international corporation owns the think! brand, and it offers three different kinds of keto-friendly protein bars: chocolate peanut butter cookie dough, chocolate mousse pie, and chocolate peanut butter pie. Certified by the Paleo Foundation for being keto-friendly, these snacks are GMO-free, gluten-free, and kosher.

Despite being flavored by sweeteners like erythritol and stevia leaf extract, these bars are covered in chocolate and taste pretty similar to old-school candy that hasn't changed in more than a century. The only major issue with the brand's keto snacks is that they're very susceptible to warm temperatures and melt easily.

Founded in 2016, ChocZero is a Southern California company that uses fair-trade cocoa beans and low-glycemic monk fruit to make zero-sugar chocolate. If you head to the official site and read about ChocZero, it's hard not to be impressed by the brand's philosophy: "Eating less sugar is a lifestyle, not a diet–and we want to make it feel like a reward, not a punishment."

To be fair to the company, eating its dark chocolate bark with almonds does feel like getting a reward. The snack tastes like a premium chocolate bar but with a subtle aftertaste that likely comes from the monk fruit used as a sweetener. The almonds and sea salt do a good job rounding out the flavors while providing a bit of texture contrast.

As a premium dark chocolate, the ChocZero treat is an ideal Halloween candy to pair with wine. Fruity red wines like malbec and pinot noir are great partners for this nutty bark. Although, if you want to remain in ketosis, you should probably drink a low-ABV wine and limit your wine portion (via Today).

Peanut butter cups have to be one of the best peanut butter snacks. No doubt about it. But what happens when you strip down these snacks to less than 1 gram of sugar and 1 gram of net carbs per serving? You get Quest Nutrition Peanut Butter Cups.

Started in 2010 by software industry professionals and a fitness trainer, Quest Nutrition found success with its high-protein bars by heavily marketing them to the fitness industry. Since being acquired in 2015 for $1 billion, Quest Nutrition and its products are now widely available at national retailers like Walmart and Target (via Inc).

There are a lot of keto-friendly treats out there featuring chocolate and peanut butter. However, the peanut butter snacks from Quest Nutrition stand out for their taste. They aren't as sweet as a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, if you find that classic candy overly sweet, you might actually prefer this healthier option.

Many keto-friendly candies are meant to be low-sugar versions of popular treats like gummy bears or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. And while Cocomels' caramels are not exactly a completely novel creation, they are quite different from their inspiration.

In case you didn't know much about caramels, they are made by heating sugar until it enters a process called caramelization. All of the caramels from Cocomels are made with organic cane sugar, except for the company's coconut sugar caramels. But the inclusion of coconut milk makes these candies transcendent. And oh, by the way, they are low in carbohydrates, making them keto-friendly (via healthline). As Halloween candy, these are pretty great. The individually wrapped treats look like any other ones you might find in your large plastic jack-o' lantern, increasing the odds they'll be appreciated by unsuspecting non-keto people.

Cocomels treats also have several holistic benefits that bear mentioning. They are certified USDA organic and non-GMO, according to the official website. They are also plant-based and kosher.