A question I often ask myself come Halloween and subsequent holidays every year is ‘what do vegans do?’

As a vegetarian myself there are several candies I choose not to eat such as gummy bears, marshmallows and jelly beans. All of these contain animal by-product.

But vegans? What do they do?

I decided to do a little digging I went to PETA.COM and found eight surprisingly vegan Halloween candies.

1. Airheads
2. Bottlecaps
3. chick-o-sticks
4. SweeTarts
5. Swedish fish
6. Nerds
7. Smarties
8. Skittles

Do keep in mind that cruelly obtained ingredients: gelatin (cow’s bones), carmine color (crushed beetles) and confectioner’s glaze (made from female lac beetles) are non-vegan. Do your research and read your labels!

I compiled a list of my own favorite candies, which I highly recommend you try. Some may feel these are too healthy or even suck the fun out of the holidays. And to this I say, don’t knock it till you try it.

1. Annie’s organic fruit snacks
2. Panda licorice
3. fair trade chocolate
4. Justin’s organic peanut butter cups
5. Glee gum
6. Yum Earth lollipops
7. ginger candies
8. vegan gummy bears

It seems like there’s always one house in the neighborhood that hands out an apple or a granola bar, and everyone groans.. heck even I groan. Why is that?

Because we expect over-processed, free junk candy. It’s what we get dressed up for; it’s tradition. Well what if ‘nourishing’ was more traditional? Would we still groan? Is there a future where candy bars make us roll our eyes and scrunch our faces instead of apples?