Your guide to minimising additives this Easter

Are you unsure which Easter Eggs to buy for your family this Easter?  We have had lots of requests from our Additive Free Kids Community group looking for guidance in which Easter Eggs to buy for their family.  I have pulled together a Guide to minimising additives this Easter for you!  It is generally accepted that eating lots of chocolate isn’t good for us.  However, if we are going to have Easter Eggs, people would like to have some guidance regarding which have the least additives.

I have surveyed the community and asked them what are the brands that they are most likely to buy and have reviewed them.

This guide is NOT an exhaustive list of all Easter Eggs on the market .

I cannot believe how many Easter Egg products there are! This is a big $$$$ industry,  Have you walked around your local supermarket, or BIG W, Target or Kmart and seen how much floor space is dedicated to Easter Eggs! It is crazzzzeeeee!

If you have a particular favourite of an Easter Egg that I haven’t included in the list below, make sure you join the Additive Free Kids Community group where we will be continuing the discussion  about the ingredients in this egg.  You can send through a pic of the egg and the ingredients and we can chat about what the ranking would be.

This guide ranks the eggs according to additive impact.  These are NOT all additive free.

In fact I would suggest that 90% of these eggs have some form of additive in them, however, some additives are better and worse than others.  It is very difficult to find additive free easter eggs.  When you do find them, you need to buy them or order them EARLY! They go very quickly!

These are MY opinions regarding how I would rank the easter eggs in terms of impacts on additives on children.

Everyone has different constraints, sensitivities and tolerances.

This guide is to assist you to make better decisions for your family.

You will see that the Easter Eggs are categorised into four categories: Avoid, OK, Better and Best.  

AVOID: These eggs contain some or all of the following ingredients: flavours, colours, vegetable gums, humectants, vanilla extract, vanillin, food acid, thickeners, barley malt extract

OK:  These eggs still contain some or all of the following ingredients: soy lecithin, flavours, vanilla extract

BETTER: These eggs contain GM free Soy lecithin, vanilla extract

BEST:  These eggs are completely clean or may contain organic soya lecithin,

Mini Solid Eggs

BEST

Hollow Eggs

BEST

Bunny

BEST

Dairy free

BEST

In short, keep in mind the following tips when buying Easter Eggs.

1. KEEP IT SIMPLE – the simpler the better!
2. Avoid flavoured eggs – for example cherry ripe, carmello, turkish delight..
3. Avoid coloured eggs – ie those with smarties or beans
4. Avoid anything with artificial sweeteners

The good thing is that at Easter time the pressure is off a little bit.  All easter eggs look attractive in their brightly coloured foil wrapping.  Most kids are pretty happy with a plain chocolate bunny or chocolate eggs.

Just remember over the Easter break when you hear people around you complaining about how crazy their kids are because of all the sugar they have consumed….

It isn’t the sugar, it is the additives!

The sugar will definitely give them a burst of energy of course.  However, it won’t make them crazy, hyperactive or aggressive.  The impact on the kids will be dependant on the quality of the eggs and how many additives it contains.

You may be more than happy to let the kids have the eggs that I have recommended to avoid as it is a once off occurrence and you know that you can handle what ever comes in the next couple of days.  There is no right or wrong.  There are so many variables and constraints to balance for each family.

Ideally I want to provide my children the best additive free options that are available.  However, sometimes this has to be weighed up with the kids preferences, what other family members might be doing, gifts that loved ones have given to the kids.

There are multiple ways that you can handle the onslaught of additives over this period:

– try to minimise the amount of chocolate and supplement with non food items (new pj’s, colouring in book, reading books etc)
– switch some chocolates for something else that they might like instead
– consider the quantity of chocolate to be eaten and over what time period (I personally don’t like it hanging around for weeks and weeks).

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter break and that the additive impact on your families is reduced this year 🙂

If you would like to be kept up to date with the latest news, product reviews and giveaways come and join us in the Additive Free Kids Community group.  We are nearly at 1,000 beautiful community members that are ready and willing to support each other on this amazing additive free journey.  I look forward to chatting with you soon!