Candy & Chocolate Bars Compared: Hershey's, Nestle and Mars Nutrition Facts

I figured what better to compare next (after the Breakfast Cereal Comparison) than good old candy and chocolate bars.

While my intent with the previous comparison was to A) put all of those nutrition facts side-by-side for the purpose of seeing them all in one place and comparing them, and B) to help people choose the "healthy" cereals over the "unhealthy" ones, this candy and chocolate bar comparison is a little different in that there really is no "healthy" candy. There's more just "bad" and "slightly less bad."

Then again, everyone knows this already. People aren't eating candy and chocolate bars because of the nutritional content. They eat this stuff because it's really yummy. That's it. So I figure, if you're going to indulge in this stuff from time to time, you might as well at least know exactly what you're indulging in, and, if possible, maybe even make the "slightly less bad" choice.

For example, while all are high in sugar, some contain more than twice as much as some of the others. Significant differences can also be found in calories, fat and saturated fat. Not to mention, a lot of these items contain some amount of trans fat, which, after "deadly poison," is probably the worst ingredient you could have in your food (more on this below). That in itself is enough to make this worthwhile.

To help show what I mean, I've put together a side-by-side comparison of almost 70 of the most popular chocolate bars, chewy fruit candy, chocolate candy, and hard and powdered candy from Hershey's, Nestle, Mars and more to see how they all stack up against each other in terms of their nutritional content and ingredients. Also included at the end are some guidelines for helping you decide which to eat and which to avoid.

*NOTE #1* The tables below are sortable. Clicking a category (calories, fat, sugar, etc.) will sort the data in that column from lowest to highest. Clicking it again will sort it from highest to lowest.

*NOTE #2* Any questions you may have about anything you see in this candy comparison is most likely answered at the bottom of this very page. Be sure to check it out for clarifications on anything that may seem unclear.

Chocolate Bars Compared

Chewy Fruit Candy Compared

Chocolate Candy Compared

Hard and Powder Candy Compared

The Best and Worst Candy and Chocolate Bars

I concluded the Breakfast Cereal Comparison with my picks for the "best" and "worst" cereals based on how healthy or unhealthy they were. With candy and chocolate bars however, it's just not quite the same. So, rather than making a best/worst list, I'm going to instead give you some guidelines for figuring it out on your own.

After all, I think everyone is pretty much aware of the fact that this stuff is "junk food" and really isn't meant to be eaten on a regular basis. But, for those once-in-a-while treats, here are some things you may want to take into account to make your occasional junk food indulgence go as well as it can go:

1. Avoid trans fat. As I mentioned earlier, trans fat really is one of the worst (as in unhealthiest) possible things your food could contain, and a lot of the above items contained some amount of it. Looking over the comparison should make it fairly easy for you to weed out the trans fat candy and find a similar non-trans fat replacement. If there is just one candy/chocolate/junk food guideline you ever put into effect, let this be the one. (More on trans fat later.)
2. Keep an eye on calories. If you have any weight related goals (such as, you know, losing some) then calories are your #1 concern. You may notice that 1 serving of all the "Hard and Powder Candy" contains hardly any calories when compared with 1 serving of any of the "Chocolate Bars." Think about that when the occasional craving for something sweet strikes you. You can satisfy that craving with a 280 calorie chocolate bar, or you can do it with a couple of 25 calorie rolls of Smarties.
3. Saturated fat is pretty bad, too. Ever since trans fat became the new evil nutrition fact on your food label, I think saturated fat sometimes gets a little forgotten. It shouldn't be. While trans fat may outnumber it in terms of bad stuff it can potentially be the cause of, saturated fat has a pretty impressive list of its own. In the above comparison certain candy has as much as 10 more grams of saturated fat than some of the others. In other cases some candy has 3 or 4 grams, while other extremely similar candy has 0. This leaves plenty of room for an improvement in your choice of candy.

While I am personally not a fan of eating any useless and/or unhealthy calories, I have no problem admitting that eating the occasional piece of candy or chocolate bar from the above comparison won't kill ya. So, as long as you remember that the keyword there is "occasional," and also do your best to take into account the guidelines I just mentioned, you really don't have to feel too terrible about eating one of these foods. Instead... just enjoy.

Candy and Chocolate Bar Comparison FAQ

Just in case anything in the above comparison was a little unclear, here is a quick Q&A that will hopefully clear it all up.

What does "Contains Trans Fat" mean?

About 99% of the candy and chocolate bars compared have their trans fat content listed as "Trans fat: 0 grams." However, in some cases, this is actually a lie. Some of these items do indeed contain some amount trans fat even though the label says it doesn't. Let me explain...

By law, the FDA only requires food companies to list trans fat content if their food contains 0.5 grams or more of it in one serving. That means if the food contains exactly 0.49999 grams of trans fat per serving, they get to say their food contains 0 grams of trans fat. Yup, it's insanely stupid. But, that's how it is. That means if you eat a few servings of a food like this, you could end up eating a few grams of trans fat without even knowing it. And even if you just eat the 1 serving, ANY trans fat is still too much trans fat, no matter what the amount.

Luckily though, there is a way to detect if a food (in this case candy) contains any trans fat, even if the label says it doesn't. Just look at the ingredients. If you see the term "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated," that means there is indeed trans fat present in that food. So, for this comparison, I literally read through each candy's list of ingredients to see if they REALLY contained any trans fat, and a surprising number of them did. The ones that did have a "YES" listed in the "Contained Trans Fat" column, and the ones that legitimately did NOT contain any trans fat whatsoever have a "NO."

Why did you only compare these specific nutrition facts and not others?

Simple. Candy and chocolate bars are junk food. So, I compared the nutrition facts that make them junk in the first place. Is anyone really interested in comparing the protein and fiber content of Skittles VS Starburst? I didn't think so, so I didn't bother listing it. Not to mention, both of those nutrients were 0 for most of the above items.

What's the deal with the serving sizes? Why aren't they all in the same unit of measure?

For serving sizes, I used whatever unit of measure that candy or chocolate bar gave. For example, some candy comes as individual pieces inside a little bag while others come in the form of a solid bar. Rather than just use grams or ounces, I went with the most logical choice.

Where did you get the nutritional content for all of these candy and chocolate bars from?

All of the nutrition data used in this comparison came directly from the official web site of each candy brand (Hershey's, Nestle, Mars, etc.). So, if anything seems screwy, take it up with them. Also keep in mind that the candy brands themselves included a little disclaimer with their nutrition information that went something along the lines of "This nutrition information could change. In case this happens, check the package in the store before you buy it for the most current ingredients and nutrition facts." So, I guess this candy comparison carries the same disclaimer.