With Easter now only a month away (Easter Sunday falls on April 4th this year), it is the perfect opportunity to celebrate chocolate. Why not take the opportunity to treat yourself to a traditional Easter egg, or for an even more special treat we offer a range of unique Easter hampers and gifts for those who love all things chocolate.
While chocolate can have many health benefits – including being nutritious, a great source of antioxidants, improving blood flow, and more – it should be incorporated as a part into a healthy and balanced diet. With that in mind, and with Easter just around the corner, we decided to analyse the nutritional values, serving information and costs of 24 Easter-themed items, including 12 medium-sized hollow chocolate Easter eggs, and 12 smaller Easter-themed chocolate products.
Read on to find out more…
Easter Eggs
We analysed the nutritional information for 12 popular medium-sized hollow chocolate Easter eggs:
| Brand | Item | Calories (kcal) | Salt (g) | Sugar (g) | Sat fat (g) | Servings | Weight (g) | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malteser | Maltesers Milk Chocolate Easter Egg and Chocolate | 582 | 0.35 | 65 | 18.5 | 3 | 127 | £1.00 |
| Nestle | Smarties Milk Chocolate Easter Egg | 680 | 0.24 | 80 | 21.6 | 8 | 119 | £1.00 |
| Cadbury | Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo Faces Easter Egg (Medium) | 653 | 0.29 | 69.5 | 22.8 | 4 | 122 | £1.00 |
| Mars | Mars Milk Chocolate Easter Egg and Chocolate | 624 | 0.41 | 76 | 17 | 3 | 141 | £1.00 |
| Cadbury | Cadburys Mini Egg Easter Egg (Medium) | 694 | 0.29 | 78 | 22 | 4 | 130 | £1.00 |
| Nestle | Aero Bubbles Milk Chocolate Easter Egg | 696 | 0.24 | 78.6 | 22.8 | 6 | 121 | £1.00 |
| Cadbury | Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons Easter Egg (Medium) | 696 | 0.31 | 73 | 23.5 | 4 | 128 | £1.00 |
| Cadbury | Cadburys Crème Egg Easter Egg (Medium) | 713 | 0.3 | 83 | 22.1 | 4 | 138 | £1.00 |
| Nestle | Rolo Milk Chocolate Easter Egg | 718 | 0.3 | 84 | 22.2 | 6 | 128 | £1.00 |
| Nestle | Kit Kat Chunky Milk Chocolate Easter Egg | 736 | 0.26 | 79.9 | 23.4 | 5 | 129 | £1.00 |
| Cadbury | Cadbury Caramel Easter Egg (Medium) | 731 | 0.39 | 75 | 23 | 4 | 139 | £1.00 |
| Cadbury | Galaxy Minstrels Easter Egg and Chocolate | 1342 | 0.67 | 163 | 41.1 | 7 | 262 | £3.00 |
Of the 12 medium Easter eggs we analysed, there were some interesting like-for-like item comparisons worth noting, including portion size. Across the 12 medium Easter eggs, total servings varied between 3 and 8.
Winners per category:
- Lowest calories – Maltesers Milk Chocolate Easter Egg and Chocolate
- Lowest salt – Smarties Milk Chocolate Easter Egg
- Lowest sugar – Maltesers Milk Chocolate Easter Egg and Chocolate
- Lowest saturated fat – Mars Milk Chocolate Easter Egg and Chocolate
- Lowest cost (per weight) – Galaxy Minstrels Easter Egg and Chocolate
Easter Chocolate
We also analysed the nutritional information for 12 popular Easter-themed chocolate products:
| Brand | Item | Calories (kcal) | Salt (g) | Sugar (g) | Sat fat (g) | Servings | Weight (g) | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nestle | Milkybar White Chocolate Bunny | 94 | 0.05 | 8.7 | 3.4 | 1 | 17 | £0.50 |
| Nestle | Kit Kat Bunny | 156 | 0.07 | 14.6 | 5 | 1 | 29 | £0.50 |
| Malteser | Malteaster Orange Chocolate Bunny | 156 | 0.1 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 29 | £0.50 |
| Cadbury | Cadbury Mini Eggs Carton | 188 | 0.06 | 26 | 4.8 | 1 | 38.3 | £0.50 |
| Malteser | Malteaster Bunny Milk Chocolate Bar | 156 | 0.11 | 15 | 5.1 | 1 | 29 | £0.50 |
| Cadbury | Cadbury Egg ‘N’ Spoon Double Chocolate | 776 | 0.2 | 2.8 | 25.2 | 4 | 136 | £2.00 |
| Lindt | Lindt Gold Bunny Milk Chocolate | 550 | 0.2 | 55 | 20 | 1 | 100 | £2.50 |
| Cadbury | Cadbury Dairy Milk Egg and Spoon Oreo | 716 | 0.4 | 64 | 22.4 | 4 | 128 | £2.00 |
| Cadbury | Oreo Chocolate Egg (5 pack) | 875 | 0.6 | 80 | 30.5 | 5 | 155 | £2.00 |
| Cadbury | Cadbury Crème Egg (5 pack) | 885 | 3 | 132.5 | 18.5 | 5 | 40 | £2.00 |
| Cadbury | 5 Caramel Egg (5 pack) | 975 | 0.75 | 95 | 27 | 5 | 195 | £2.00 |
| Thornton’s | Thornton’s Milk Chocolate Bunny | 1124 | 0.4 | 102.6 | 43.8 | 1 | 200 | £4.00 |
Winners per category:
- Lowest calories – Milkybar White Chocolate Bunny
- Lowest salt – Milkybar White Chocolate Bunny
- Lowest sugar – Cadbury Egg ‘N’ Spoon Double Chocolate
- Lowest saturated fat – Milkybar White Chocolate Bunny
- Lowest cost (per weight) – 5 Caramel Egg (5 pack)
Expert Insight
We spoke to Dr Giuseppe Aragona, GP and Online Doctor for PrescriptionDoctor.com, who explained some of the benefits of eating chocolate. Dr Aragona explained that “surprisingly there are a number of benefits to eating chocolate, however these are usually most associated with eating dark chocolate, not milk or white chocolate. Dark chocolate that has a high content of cocoa is highly nutritious and packed full of fibre and minerals. However, the chocolate has to be a good quality with a good amount of cocoa. The flavanols that are found in a bar of dark chocolate may actually work to protect your skin against sun damage and improve blood flow to the skin increasing skin hydration and elasticity.
“Cocoa also contains stimulants such as caffeine and theobromine which could be a reason for some short-term improving brain function. Overall, however, dark chocolate could actually help with long term brain function as it helps to increase blood flow which ultimately helps stimulate the brain.
“It may be hard to believe but dark chocolate has actually been found to contain more antioxidants than fruits such as berries. The antioxidants found in dark chocolate are organic compounds such as polyphenols, flavanols and catechin’s as well as many others. Many dark chocolate bars are high in flavonoids which are associated with a lower risk of heart disease. This means that regular intake of dark chocolate could promote a lower risk of insulin resistance thus reducing the risk of heart disease”.
We also spoke to nutritional therapist Caroline Peyton about how excessive sugar consumption impacts health. Caroline explained that “sugar leads to higher amounts of “bad” cholesterol versus the “good” type. Excess amounts of sugar in the bloodstream are converted to fat causing fat storage especially around the abdomen. Fat stored in this area is more conducive to cardiovascular disease. Sugar feeds pathogenic gut bacteria and suppresses the beneficial bacteria creating dysbiosis. Imbalanced gut bacteria has far reaching impacts to our health as we now know so much how bacterial species contribute to disease including autoimmunity, obesity, and mental health. And of course, too much sugar is a major driver of insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes”.
If you’re looking to treat yourself to an Easter egg this year but are concerned about the nutritional information of your favourite seasonal treat, we hope the advice in the article provides you with some useful insight into which to choose.
Sources: Nutritional information collated via product pages on the Tesco website, correct as of 01/03/2021.
Disclaimer: The information in this story is accurate as of the publication date. Virginia Hayward are not liable or responsible for the accuracy of the advice provided by third party experts, nor for the content or operation of any third-party websites, webpages, or resources which have been linked to within this article.
