Healthy Easter Report

Easter is such a fun holiday for kids and adults, whether you celebrate it for religious 
purposes or just to have some fun in the middle of April. There are many traditions 
people celebrate on Easter, from preparing baskets for their kids and going on Easter 
egg hunts, to having a big holiday meal similar to Thanksgiving or Christmas. 

While it is great to continue having these fun traditions, many of them tend to lean 
toward the unhealthier side. Luckily, it is possible to still have those fun hunts and enjoy 
dinner with your family and not have to do it in the unhealthy way. Here are some 
different tips and methods for having a healthy and enjoyable Easter holiday with your 
family.

Fill Up the Basket With Healthy Goodies

Talking about the Easter baskets is a good place to start when discussing having a 
healthier Easter, since this tends to be where a lot of people offer their children 
unhealthier options. It is also one of the more popular traditions for this holiday. If you 
want your kids to enjoy their baskets but without sugar-laden sweets, there are some 
super fun and easy options!

Why You Should Limit These Sugary Treats

First, let’s go over the nutritional content of some of the more popular candy options for 
Easter baskets. You may not include all of these, but it is good to have a summary of 
how much sugar, fat, and calories go into the top options. Just look at what is in your 
favorite candy!

Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs

These small chocolate and peanut butter-shaped eggs are 170 calories and 10 grams 
of fat for just one piece. They are pretty small, and a lot of kids have more than one in 
their basket. Plus, it is loaded with 24 different ingredients (many of which you probably 
can’t pronounce) and 16 grams of sugar. 

Chocolate Bunny

The nutritional info might vary based on the type of bunny you get, especially when 
comparing solid versus hollow inside. However, the classic Dove chocolate bunny is a 
whopping 690 calories and 42 grams of fat for the entire one! It also contains 69 grams 
of sugar. 

Peeps

Perhaps your kids aren’t really into chocolate, but they love Peeps. These cute 
marshmallow guys are pretty much just pure sugar. They don’t have any fat or saturated 
fat with a serving size of 5 Peeps, but there are 34 grams of sugar. 

Cadbury Crème Eggs

The standard serving size of Cadbury Crème Eggs is 2 eggs, which makes sense since 
they often come in little boxes with 2 eggs inside. These might be your favorite thing to 
put in the Easter basket, but 2 eggs are 300 calories and 12 grams of fat. Surprisingly a 
lower amount of fat, but not when you consider 2 eggs have a total of 40 grams of 
sugar.

Brach’s Jelly Bird Eggs

Finally, you might serve your kids a little bag of Brach’s (or other brand) jelly beans 
shaped like eggs. This brand has 450 calories in 3 servings (often what one bag or what 
fits in a plastic Easter egg). There is no fat or saturated fat, but an insanely high 90 
grams of sugar! These are nothing but sugar. 

Healthier Easter Basket Options

Now that you have seen the high sugar treats you usually put in your kids’ Easter 
baskets, you can learn about some healthier options. 

Add More Non-Treat Items - First of all, don’t underestimate the power of non-treat 
gifts! You probably fill up the basket with mostly candy and maybe a small toy or two. 
Why not switch it around? Have just one small type of candy, then have little books, 
stickers, or small inexpensive items in the basket. It is still fun for them to open, but you 
don’t have to worry about hundreds of grams of sugar just in one Easter basket.

Try Chocolate-Covered Fruit – If you want to give your kids chocolate, but in a 
healthier way, you can try making chocolate covered fruit. They are getting all the 
nutrition from the fruit you use and preventing them from having pure, solid chocolate at 
the same time. That little bit of chocolate covering banana slices or half of the 
strawberries really isn’t much as compared to that size of solid chocolate. Plus, you can 
use white chocolate and color it orange or green for a festive collection.

Get Organic Fruit Snacks – Instead of giving them little bags of jelly beans, why not 
get fruit snacks as well? Many of these also have a lot of sugar, so try to find the natural 
or organic varieties that don’t contain a lot of sugar or extra preservatives. 

Choose Dark Chocolate – Another way to give your kids chocolate in their Easter 
basket but in a healthier way is choosing small pieces of dark chocolate. The content is 
less, plus dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants. It is so much better for both kids 
and adults, but it is still yummy!

Healthier Plastic Egg Contents – If you like to fill plastic eggs with candy and put it in 
the Easter baskets, another option is to fill it with healthier snacks. You can fit your 
organic fruit snacks inside, nuts, seeds, or even small pieces of fruit that won’t spoil. 
You can also put little stickers or small toys in the eggs.

Choose These Healthier Easter Dinner Options

After creating healthier Easter baskets for your kids, you probably want to move onto 
the Easter Dinner. This is similar to any other family dinner, where the main courses, 
appetizers, and desserts are often filled with fat, calories, carbs, and sugar. This might 
not be a great option for you if you are trying to be healthier overall or you are 
attempting to lose weight at this time.

These tips are going to help you start planning a healthier Easter dinner and eat the 
right portions with just a few tips and tricks.

Make Everything From Scratch

This is a really simple trick that will help you make healthier meals simply by having 
more control over the ingredients. This isn’t as much as cutting back on fat and calories 
only, but just having healthier food. The less processed, packaged, and frozen 
ingredients you use in your meals, the healthier it is going to be overall. This will help to 
reduce the sodium amount, get rid of all those nasty preservatives you don’t want your 
family to have, and help you control how much butter, cheese, and other fats go into the 
dishes. Plus, it can be a fun family activity your kids are able to help with.

Here are some healthier options to try out:

* Use coconut oil or olive oil instead of butter
* Cut the amount of cheese needed by half
* Don’t use anything that is boxed or frozen
* Use only low-sodium and low-sugar ingredients

Be Careful With Your Breads and Sides

Another aspect of Easter dinner that tends to pack on the fat and calories is the side 
dishes and bread. IF you are a low-carb diet, keep in mind you can have a big family 
dinner without eating even a piece of bread or a starchy vegetable. Instead, have your 
fill of ham or turkey, deviled eggs, and vegetables. Just avoid vegetable sides with a 
cream-base, as this usually has more carbs. Skip the mashed potatoes and have a side 
salad or double veggies instead. 

When you are preparing sides, follow the previous instructions by cutting back on butter, 
cheese, and other fattening ingredients. You can easily transform some of your favorite 
dishes to a healthier option by making garlic green beans instead of a cream-based 
green bean casserole and using sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes.

Focus on Better Portion Control

Finally, you will need to work on portion control. With family dinners like Easter, you can 
eat a little of everything (Within reason), but just watch how much you get. The thing 
you want to learn is what a proper portion is. For example, a 3-4 ounce piece of ham 
should fit into the palm of your hand. Try to have such a palm-sized portion of each 
dish, one deviled egg instead of two, and cut back on the butter on your roll, and you 
will be doing much better.

Another trick with portion control is to look at your plate as you add food to it. What you 
want to do is have a little bit of space between each food item, then stop when you can’t 
fit anymore without food touching. This keeps you from piling it up and having too much 
to eat.

Tips For Avoiding the Chocolate and Sweets

Your kids might not be the only ones who need to stay away from all the sweets this 
Easter. Maybe you struggle with not eating the same candy you add to their baskets, or 
you find that it is hard to not grab chocolate from the little dish on your counter every 
time you are in the kitchen. You are definitely not alone! The following tips are going to 
help you to control your sugar cravings and avoid all of these little temptations.

Choose More Natural Sweets

Don’t forget you can have sweets that aren’t filled with sugar or coated with chocolate. 
Fruit is one of the best natural sweeteners out there. It is going to fulfill all of those sugar 
cravings you get, plus it will provide a lot more nutritional content. Think about all the 
vitamins and minerals you get from fresh strawberries, juicy peaches, and fiber-rich 
bananas. You can always dip them in melted chocolate and freeze to have them as a 
dessert as well.

One fun thing you can do is start with strawberries and keep them whole. Melt some 
white chocolate, then quickly dye it an orange color with a few drops of orange food 
coloring. Remember to mix it well each time until you get the right shade of orange. 
Dip the entire strawberry in the chocolate, then place it on a sheet of wax paper on a 
pan. Leave the strawberry stem on as it will look like the stem of an orange carrot. 

These only have a small amount of chocolate on them, just like when you prepared 
them for the kids. The entire family can enjoy these fun treats!

Avoid Having Them in the House

The number one way to avoid those temptations are to remove the temptation entirely. 
If you have just finished making the Easter baskets and have candy leftover, bring it to 
your church to give to kids there or give it to a neighbor who has kids. Do whatever you 
need to in order to get it out of your house! You are much less likely to pick it up at the 
store when you have a craving as you are to grab a piece when it is right there on your 
counter.

Eat Veggies Before Dessert

This helps when you have yummy desserts at home, or even just chocolate that you are 
saving for filling eggs for an Easter egg hunt. In this case, you can avoid the temptation 
by filling up on healthy foods. Perhaps you know there is a big carrot cake, but you want 
to avoid having a piece. If you are having a lot of cravings, first make a really healthy 
meal or snack with a salad or lots of veggies. These will really help to fill you up, plus 
some of them can even provide natural sweetness. Once you are full, you will probably 
not have such bad cravings anymore. It’s a major win-win!

Make Sure You Get Plenty of Exercise

When Easter is coming up and you’re not sure you can avoid those sugar cravings or 
battle the temptation, that’s okay! It’s definitely okay to have a treat here and there and 
enjoy your big family dinner. Another option is to keep exercising regularly and burn as 
many calories as you can.

Exercising is going to burn the extra calories you are consuming, plus give you more 
energy. When you are consuming a high amount of sugar, it really saps your energy 
once the short-term sugar high wears off. Walking during your lunch break or enjoying 
weekend hikes with the kids can help a ton.

Here are some exercise options for the Easter holiday:

Spend Easter Sunday going on a family hike instead of eating sweets all day.
Take your dogs for an extra walk after your dinner is complete.
Get the kids fitness accessories in their Easter basket and go on a family bike ride. 
Enjoy some living room dance time after the Easter egg hunt.

