Infographic: The Ultimate Halloween Candy Guide

Halloween is a magical time of year, and and not just because of all those witches and warlocks casting their seasonal spells. It's magical because it's the one time of the year when we are not nust allowed but expected to gorge ourselves on candy, diet be damned. There is nothing quite like bringing home an epic haul from your neighborhood rounds, especially if you happen to notice that it contains a sizable portion of your favorite Halloween candy.

Click here for The Ultimate Halloween Candy Health Smack-Down (Slideshow)

But no matter how entitled you or your young trick-or-treaters feel to a cheat day, the fact is the nutrition information on some of your favorite Halloween candy is downright scary — even when these sweets are "fun sized." Sugars, calories, and even trans fats are hiding in your beloved sweets, and overindulgence can happen quickly. To determine just how healthy or unhealthy our Halloween candies are, we ranked America's favorites and then ordered them from lowest to highest in calorie count, followed by sugar content and total fat. The results may make you want to scream, especially once you see just how bad a single seemingly innocent piece of candy can actually be! Just check out our infographic for this and more on your favorite Halloween candies:

That said, we don't want to completely scare you away from enjoying sweets on this holiday. Just like any other special occasion, the key to enjoying the festivities while staying on-track with your diet is making smarter choices. To help you choose your candy a little more wisely, we compared Halloween candies with similar flavor profiles to show you which candy is the better choice. You may be surprised to learn just how different these little treats are!

Hershey Kisses vs. Tootsie Roll

Both candies are sweet, chocolaty, and totally tasty, but one definitely reigns supreme over the other in nutrition facts. Granted it isn't by much, but one Hershey Kiss actually contain fewer calories and less sugar than a Tootsie Roll.

Milk Duds vs. Whoppers

Talk about a whopper of a reality check. Bite-size bits of gooey chocolate seem like they'd be pretty much on par with each other in terms of nutrition. However, one package of  fun-size Milk Duds has half of the calories, sugar, and fat of a fun-size box of Whoppers. 

This article was origianlly published on October 28, 2014.