Most chocolate that is brought in for Easter is pretty good as far as additives go. The ingredients list tends to run something like this: sugar, vegetable fat, milk solids, emulsifiers (soya lecithin 492) flavour and/or cocoa powder.
What you do want to be careful of when buying the eggs and bunnies and-whatever-shape-they-decide-to-come-in-this-year are 3 things:
Number 1
Artificial and sugar free sweeteners eg sorbitol, aspartame, mannitol. You will not be doing your child any favour by getting a ‘sugar free’ egg thinking it will stop the tears and tantrums around eating chocolate or sugary foods. Because it won’t. Those additives are linked to quite a few side effects you don’t want. Thinks like asthma, depression, hyperactivity and maybe even seizures. Most commonly they lead to diarrhoea, nausea and stomach upsets. But what really makes it worse is that long term consumption for most of these artificial sweeteners are suspected of being carcinogenic. So if you are cautious about the sugar in Easter chocolate and want to cut back on it- fantastic! Your child’s health will thank you for that. But it’s commonly not the sugar that will send your child in a tail spin, it’s more likely the additives bundled up with the sugary treat.
Number 2
Avoid the highly coloured goods, and opt for the plain chocolate bunnies and eggs instead. So no coloured ‘beans’ or flavoured mini eggs inside. The concentration of colours and artificial flavours will keep your child wired for hours. Children love packaging so they aren’t going to be disappointed about a plain chocolate inside at all!
Number 3
Avoid strong flavours such as orange oil, peppermint, strawberry etc as both the natural and artificial flavour load can be too much for some kids.
