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One of our clients called us, puzzled. She'd had a few pieces of Halloween candy at a friend's party, checked her CGM (continuous glucose monitor) afterward, and the line had barely moved. "So is candy fine for me?"

Over the next few weeks, her food log changed. Toffee and candy went from the occasional entry to most days. Nothing on her monitor suggested otherwise, so she kept going.

We hear questions like hers every October. This week, we answer them using the labels on the candy itself.

Inside this issue:

• How much added sugar fits a meal, and how candy uses it up

•  Seven Halloween treats compared

• Is sugar-free candy worth the price?

• A plan for Halloween night and the leftover bowl

BEST FINDS
Swap or Sidekick: Keep the candy, lose the spike. This Halloween, either swap the candy bowl for a dessert worth choosing, or pair your candy with a protein-packed sidekick so it never goes in alone. Pumpkin Pie Yogurt Pots - All the pie, none of the crust, with toasted pecans on top. Graveyard Chocolate Mousse Cups - Silky dark chocolate mousse buried under almond “dirt.” Black Cat Dark Chocolate Seed Bark - The candy-bowl lookalike you’ll actually want to reach for. Deviled Egg “Eyeballs” - Creepy, creamy, and the kids will fight over them. Jack-o’-Lantern Seed Trail Mix- Turn the seeds you scoop out into smoky, crunchy grab-and-go bags. Monster Mouth Apple Bites - Apple wedges with a peanut butter grin and almond teeth.

Halloween Candy and Prediabetes: How Much Fits, and How to Count It

Halloween candy doesn't have to be off-limits when you have prediabetes. What matters is how much you eat, how often, and how it fits into your overall diet. The nutrition label helps you keep track of both total carbohydrates and added sugar.

As for our client's flat line: a fun-size piece contains relatively little carbohydrate, and not all sugars affect blood glucose in the same way. Her monitor showed how her glucose responded that day. It couldn't show how much added sugar was accumulating in her diet over the week.

Can you eat candy with prediabetes?

Yes. Even the CDC's guidance for people with diabetes says sweets can fit, as long as you plan for them. The real question is how much, and two guidelines give us numbers to work with.

Per meal: The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend no more than 10 grams of added sugar in a meal. Added sugar is sugar put into food during processing or cooking. The sugar that occurs naturally in fruit or milk doesn't count.

Per day: The American Heart Association recommends no more than about 25 grams of added sugar a day for women and 36 grams for men, roughly 6 and 9 teaspoons.

Think of the first number as a limit for each sitting, and the second as a limit for the whole day.

Here's how quickly Halloween candy reaches them:

• 1 fun-size Snickers: 8 g of added sugar, most of one meal's limit

• 2 Heath toffee miniatures: about 10 g, a full meal's limit

• 3 squares of 72% dark chocolate: 8 g

• 15 pieces of candy corn: 23 g, nearly a woman's limit for the whole day

A single piece may fit comfortably. The trouble starts with repetition. For our client, one piece after dinner turned into a piece most days, and those pieces started to add up.

How much candy can you have with prediabetes?

Here's what's in one piece of some common Halloween treats. If you count carbohydrates, the candy's carbs are part of that meal's total, not extra on top of it.

Per piece or listed amount, from package labels; data from USDA.

Most pieces are similar: Many fun-size chocolate bars contain about 5 to 10 grams of carbohydrate each. Larger portions, like 15 pieces of candy corn, can contain much more. Check the serving size as well as the carbohydrate number.

Check how the label counts: Some labels list a serving as more than one piece: 2 Kit Kat bars, 3 squares of dark chocolate, or 15 pieces of candy corn. The table above shows one piece, so you don't have to do the math.

Natural doesn't mean small: One Medjool date has more carbohydrate than a fun-size Snickers. It has some fiber and no added sugar, which is a plus, but it's still a concentrated sweet.

If you're watching added sugar, dark chocolate is one option: At about 3 grams of added sugar a square, it has the least of any candy in the table.

Read: GI vs. GL, finally explained simply

Is sugar-free candy better for prediabetes?

Sometimes, but look past the front of the package. Sugar-free candy is usually sweetened with sugar alcohols, sweeteners your body only partly uses for energy. They still count as carbohydrates. Some raise blood glucose a little, and erythritol may not raise it at all. Eaten in large amounts, they can cause bloating or diarrhea.

One caution about erythritol: studies have linked higher blood levels to increased heart attack and stroke risk, though they haven't proven that eating it causes harm. It's another reason to enjoy sugar-free candy in moderation and check the ingredients for erythritol.

Whatever the package says, check the total carbohydrate line first. And one planned piece of regular candy can cost less, and satisfy you more, than a bag of diabetic candy.

A Halloween night plan for prediabetes

1. Meal first, candy after. Eating a sweet with or right after a meal makes it easier to stop at a small amount. Eating protein, fat or vegetables before carbohydrate also lowers the rise in blood glucose after a meal.

2. Choose your pieces ahead of time. Before the bowl comes out, pick the candies you actually love and decide how many, using the table.

3. Walk with the trick-or-treaters. Short, light walks lower blood glucose after eating, compared with sitting still.

4. If you have a meter or CGM, check. Test before your treat and about two hours after. Compare the change with what you see after a usual dinner without candy.

5. Have a plan for November 1. Keep a few favorites and move the rest out of the house. At work, take your piece with lunch instead of returning to the office candy bowl all afternoon. If sweets help you get through anxious or low days, that's common, and it's worth mentioning to your care team.

Read: Does prediabetes cause sugar cravings?

If you've been doing all of this for years and your numbers still won't budge, candy is probably not the whole story. This issue looks at what else could be going on: Read: Plateau panic? Why your numbers aren't moving

The bottom line

Our client's CGM wasn't wrong. It measures glucose, not how much sugar you eat over a week. The nutrition label fills in part of that picture: how much carbohydrate and added sugar are in each piece, and how those amounts fit into your day. Pay attention to portions and how often you're reaching for candy, and it can have a place on October 31.

The scariest thing about Halloween candy isn't one piece. It's believing you have to choose between enjoying the night and taking care of your health.

Have questions? We got answers. Email [email protected]