Healthier Valentine’s Day Candy for the Sweets Lover on your List | 2023
Candy makes such an easy but thoughtful gift for anyone at anytime of the year, and it’s a classic Valentine’s Day gift. But as adults, we also know we’re supposed to go easy on the sugary stuff, even on the sweetest day of the year. Not to worry, though, you don’t have to give your special someone carrot and celery sticks this Valentine’s Day because we have rounded up plenty of healthier candy options that still taste great despite being much lower in sugar and that are made with healthier ingredients.
SmartSweets Variety Pack
Each pack of SmartSweets candy contains just three grams of sugar, yet these candies taste like the real deal, just a bit less potently sweet. The candy is sweetened primarily with allulose, a natural sugar found in things like raisins and dates, so the flavoring doesn’t come across as artificial, the texture is spot-on, and the calories are low.
SkinnyDipped Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Sweetened with maple syrup, a bit of sugar, and allulose, and of course with the natural deliciousness of peanut butter and chocolate, you’d be right if you guessed that these cups are sublime. They are also impressive in that each one has a mere two grams of sugar, 70 calories, and 3.5 grams of net carbs.
UNREAL Milk Chocolate Gems
Comparable in sweetness to your favorite candy-coated little bits of chocolate (yes, the ones that start with the letter “M”), these chocolates aren’t all that low in sugar, exactly, but they are absent of anything artificial. Even the bright colors of the candy shells are sourced from vegetables, so it’s OK to just indulge now and then.
Snack Owl Vegan Sour Gummy Candy
Love sour gummy bears? Yeah, so do we. (And really, who doesn’t?) These sweet and sour and chewy gummies (which are shaped like planets and stars and such, not bears, for the record) are made with allulose as the primary sweetener, and each bag contains only 90 calories and two grams of sugar.
Lily’s Dark Chocolate Covered Caramels
These rich, chewy, chocolatey caramels are sweetened with stevia, not sugar, so they’re low in calories and low in carbs, making this the perfect indulgence for the friend or family member on your Valentine’s Day list who is focused on fitness but still has a sweet tooth. (And it’s OK if they’re for you, by the way.)
Project 7 Low Sugar Candy Variety Pack
There’s something for every chewy candy aficionado here, from the sour candy fan to the classic gummy bear. But there’s very little sugar here, for the record. Every bag of Project 7 candy has just three grams of added sugar and an impressively low 60 calories. They are keto-friendly but, more to the point, they’re excellent.
YumEarth Organic Fruit-Flavored Giggles
This is another candy that’s not low in sugar, per say, though it is lower than that famous candy it emulates that starts with a letter “S.” And unlike that candy, these tasty, tangy little buts are made with entirely natural ingredients. In fact, they are made with organic ingredients, and that even includes the coloring.
Hu Chocolate Bars Variety Pack
The chocolate used in these organic, fair-trade certified chocolate bars is made with three ingredients. Yep, three. And they are organic cacao, organic unrefined coconut sugar, and organic cocoa butter. And every other ingredient in the bars, from the hazelnut butter to the mint to the vanilla, is just as high-quality.
Tom & Jenny’s Sugar-Free Soft Caramel
Sweetened with xylitol, a safe sweetener that’s actually good for your teeth, these soft, chewy, and tasty caramels are low in calories — as in 60 calories per five caramels — and low in fat and they and won’t cause cavities, so it’s a win for the body writ large. Also, they taste good, so there’s that.
