Last Updated on November 9, 2023 by Fasting Planet
Do you ever have a craving for candy? Although it’s empty nutritionally, candy can temporarily boost your energy levels thanks to all that sugar. It also makes you feel better, well, at least until you crash. As a vegan, if you’re in the mood for sweets, can you indulge?
Many sweets and candies are off-limits for vegans, including the following:
- Cake mix
- Red candies and treats
- Junior Mints
- Gummy bears
- Marshmallows
- Jell-O
- Candy corn
- Starburst
- Butterfinger
- 3 Musketeers
- M&Ms
- Reese’s
- Kit-Kats
- Nestle Crunch
Yes, it’s a long list, and it can be upsetting to see so many of your favorite candies and sweets being barred from the vegan diet. To soothe the sting, we’ll share some alternatives for each of these non-vegan candies and treats.
Going Vegan? Avoid These Candies and Sweets!
Cake Mix
Why You Can’t Eat It
Cake mix might seem like a strange one to have on the list. It’s not like mixes come with eggs in them; you have to add those in later. So why can’t you eat cake mix as a vegan? Many brands use beef fat as a type of shortening in cake mix so you can add fewer ingredients yet still get a decent-tasting cake for your efforts.
What to Eat Instead
Make your own cake mix from scratch, which is much more rewarding and delicious than a boxed mix any day. Whether you make the cake for yourself, a partner or spouse, or a family member or friend, they’ll certainly appreciate your baking efforts!
Red Candies and Treats
Why You Can’t Eat It
From red candy apples to Nerds, red licorice, and any other sweet or candy that’s colored red, vegans have to avoid them all. That ruby red hue comes from cochineal, an insect species that produces a red dye when crushed. Since the bugs are so teeny-tiny, large quantities of cochineal need to be killed so that the dessert you’re eating can be a bright red.
Besides its use in food, cochineal is widely utilized in the beauty industry to add pigment to lipstick, eye shadow, and other makeup.
What to Eat Instead
If you miss licorice, try Airheads. This chewy, toothsome candy in all its flavors and colors is completely vegan. One Airheads candy bar contains 60 calories compared to the 53 calories in 10 pieces of bite-sized licorice, so it’s not a huge increase in caloric load either.
Junior Mints
Why You Can’t Eat It
Do you ever notice that certain candies have a sheen to them that makes them look more appealing? This shiny quality is from an ingredient known as confectioner’s glaze, which is a pretty term for shellac. What is shellac? It’s another animal byproduct, this time from lac insects. Female insects release secretions, or shellac, that’s used to shine up sweets.
That includes all sizes and varieties of Junior Mints. Plus, these mints are coated in chocolate, so they have dairy in them too.
What to Eat Instead
Free2B’s dark chocolate mint cups may not have the classic shape or size of a Junior Mint, but they deliver the same cooling sensation and great flavor. The best part? No bugs and no dairy!
Gummy Bears
Why You Can’t Eat It
The chewy stretchiness of gummy bears is courtesy of gelatin, an animal byproduct that’s made from skin, hooves, bones, and/or cartilage. It’s mostly pig offal that’s used to produce gelatin, but not exclusively.
What to Eat Instead
Gelatin-free gummy bears like Surf Sweets Organic Fruity Bears are also nut-free, gluten-free, and non-GMO. Made without artificial flavors and colors, you can safely munch on the whole bag without feeling bad about it. Do keep in mind that not all Surf Sweets gummies are vegan though!
Marshmallows
Why You Can’t Eat It
The animal protein gelatin is found in marshmallows as well.
What to Eat Instead
Does this mean no more family campfires roasting marshmallows and making s’mores? Certainly not!
Dandies is a vegan marshmallow that looks, feels, and tastes like real marshmallows but without the pesky gelatin. These marshies are also kosher, non-GMO, gluten-free, corn syrup-free, and contain no artificial colors and flavors. Even non-vegans should eat them.
Jell-O
Why You Can’t Eat It
You know what Jell-O is, right? Yes, that’s right, it’s gelatin. That’s how Jell-O gets its beloved wiggle and jiggle, but vegans cannot eat it.
What to Eat Instead
Ditch the Jell-O and try Bakol Jel instead. Their vegan-safe, gelatin-free jelly dessert comes in all the same flavors you can buy Jell-O in, such as lemon, cherry, raspberry, strawberry, and orange. You can even shop for an unflavored jelly if that’s what your recipe calls for.
Candy Corn
Why You Can’t Eat It
Candy corn is orange, yellow, and white, so you’re not sure why it’s on this list. Does it have cochineal that’s diluted to get that autumnal orange? Not exactly.
This isn’t the case with all candy corn, but Brach’s especially uses gelatin to firm up this fall candy favorite.
What to Eat Instead
Happy Bites candy corn will put you in that fall mood. Their one-pound pouches are filled with candy corn made without dairy, gluten, or gelatin. The candy is even fat-free!
Jelly Belly, which is mostly known for its jellybeans, sells gelatin-free candy corn as well. Theirs is creamy and dreamy thanks to the inclusion of mellocreme. The flavor notes of vanilla are a nice touch.
Starburst
Why You Can’t Eat It
Sorry to burst your bubble (pun intended), but Starburst is one candy you’ll have to give up as a vegan. Almost all the Starburst candy varieties have gelatin, from Original Starburst to Starburst Minis and their jellybeans.
What to Eat Instead
Mini Laffy Taffy, unlike their larger counterparts, are egg-free and thus fine for vegans to enjoy. If you prefer the fruitiness of Starburst, try Laffy Taffy varieties like grape, watermelon, cherry, banana, Sparkle Cherry, Orange Sorbet, or Blue Raspberry.
Mamba Fruit Chews are more like traditional Starburst but without the gelatin. Sample all the flavors, including lemon, cherry, orange, raspberry, and strawberry.
Butterfinger
Why You Can’t Eat It
Saying goodbye to Butterfingers isn’t easy, but the chocolate that enrobes this crunchy peanut butter candy is not dairy-free, so you have no choice but to quit it.
What to Eat Instead
A vegan-safe alternative called Thumbs Up still provides all the crispy goodness and layers of peanut butter that a Butterfinger does but without the dairy. Its ingredients are tocopherol, natural flavorings, natural colors, cornstarch, soybean lecithin, salt, rice powder, cocoa powder, palm kernel oil, organic unrefined cane sugar, dry-roasted peanuts, vegan corn syrups, and cane sugar.
Dry-roasted peanuts are sometimes processed with gelatin, but these aren’t.
3 Musketeers
Why You Can’t Eat It
The combination of whipped chocolate mousse and crisp chocolate coating that is 3 Musketeers is off the table when you go vegan. Like Butterfinger, 3 Musketeers is not produced using dairy-free chocolate.
What to Eat Instead
You can always try making your own vegan 3 Musketeers bars using vegan marshmallows, dairy-free milk, pure vanilla extract, coconut oil, and dairy-free chocolate. If you’d rather just grab a candy bar and go, try the Buccaneer.
This vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, non-GMO candy bar also dumps the corn syrup, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, and artificial ingredients for a chocolate bar that’s even more chocolatey than 3 Musketeers ever was.
M&Ms
Why You Can’t Eat It
M&Ms commit a lot of cardinal sins in the vegan department. For one, they’re made with dairy milk. The food coloring is likely not vegan, and that’s for more than the red M&Ms (lots of other food coloring hues are non-vegan as well since they’re tested on animals). The natural flavorings also might not be vegan.
What to Eat Instead
Unreal’s dairy-free vegan candies will replace M&Ms on your diet. Their dark chocolate crispy quinoa gems might sound a bit odd until you give them a try. Then you’ll be hooked. Bid adieu to Peanut M&Ms when you can munch on Unreal’s dark chocolate peanut gems instead.
Reese’s
Why You Can’t Eat It
Yes, we just said Reese’s in general because every variety falls into the same trap that’s ensnared the other chocolate candies we’ve discussed so far. That is, Reese’s chocolate is full of dairy. From the cups to Reese’s Pieces, the bars, and the thin cups, you have to skip them all as a vegan.
What to Eat Instead
Not every peanut butter cup from Justin’s is vegan, but their dark chocolate peanut butter cups are. The ingredients include organic soy lecithin, sea salt, organic vanilla powder, organic palm oil, organic peanut flour, organic cane sugar, organic peanuts, organic cocoa butter, organic cacao beans, organic evaporated cane sugar, and organic dark chocolate.
Kit-Kats
Why You Can’t Eat It
Up to 76 percent of a Kit-Kat is chocolate, none of which is dairy-free. You know what that means: you can’t eat this candy as a vegan.
What to Eat Instead
Little Secrets makes a Kit-Kat-like candy that many people say outdoes Kit-Kats. You can shop their chocolate wafers in flavors like dark chocolate with sea salt, peanut butter in dark chocolate, and almond butter in dark chocolate with sea salt.
The ingredients in the Little Secrets Dark Chocolate Crispy Wafers are ascorbic acid, sea salt, salt, lecithin, soy lecithin, sugar cane fiber, skimmed cocoa powder, sugar, palm oil, riboflavin, thiamine, iron, niacin, enriched wheat flour, Fair Trade-certified cocoa butter, Fair Trade-certified sugar, and Fair Trade-certified unsweetened dark chocolate.
Nestle Crunch
Why You Can’t Eat It
Another crunchy candy that’s off-limits for vegans is Nestle Crunch. You know the drill by now, it’s the milk chocolate that’s not dairy-free and thus a problem for your diet.
What to Eat Instead
Snap! is here to make you forget all about Nestle Crunch. This vegan candy bar has no trans fats, nor any artificial colors or flavors. It’s gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate and crispy rice, simple!
Conclusion
Vegans have to dodge a lot of sweets since they contain animal products and byproducts such as food coloring, dairy milk, and gelatin. Fortunately, if you’re a candy lover and a vegan, you can shop all sorts of better-for-you alternatives that can make eating candy an almost healthful experience!