Sweets & snacks

This category covers the foods most of us eat for pleasure rather than nutrition: chocolate, candy, biscuits, cakes, crisps, popcorn and the like. As a group they tend to be calorie-dense and rich in added sugar, refined starch or fat, while contributing relatively little in the way of vitamins, minerals or fibre. That doesn't make them off-limits — it makes portion size and frequency the whole game.

There's real variation within the group. Dark chocolate carries more minerals and antioxidants than milk chocolate; air-popped popcorn is a wholegrain snack until butter and salt are added; nuts and dried fruit sit at the healthier edge of "snack". Reading the numbers per 100 g here is a useful reality check, since a typical portion of many of these foods is far smaller than 100 g.

Browse every sweet and snack per 100 g, and lean on the gram scaler to see a realistic single serving.