As Easter approaches, I am always amazed to find that Peeps are still on the shelves of my local market. Does anybody actually eat these? Daughter Karen had an unopened package of them for years before we made her throw them out. So in what is quickly becoming an annual tradition, I have to write a requisite Peeps blog.
The Effects of Nicotine on Peep Health
You just have to love the Peep Research site from Emory University, source of the controlled, rigorous study depicted in the photograph above. Once you get past the fact that they’re doing strange things with Peeps, the science lessons are really quite good. Other Peep favorites include Voyage of the Peep-o-nauts (which really is from NASA–no joke).
In case your taste runs more to Twinkies than Peeps, you might enjoy the T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project, which includes the Twinkie Turing Test.
If you’re thinking that all of these scientists have way too much time on their hands, consider this. Scott Barry Kaufmann and his colleagues (2008) start a chapter entitled “The Role of Creativity and Humor in Human Mate Selection” with the statement “Let’s face it: Most people think humor is sexy.” So maybe our food scientists have some method to their madness.
5 Comments
helenasetiawan · April 7, 2009 at 9:25 am
Haha, I have to say that this post was very entertaining. I actually still have a box of green Peeps on my shelf back at home that was given to me as a gift from one of my friend two Easter ago. And surprisingly, or not, it has not molded or gone bad. I clicked on the Peep Research link, and I was pretty interested to see the types of experiment these people did with Peeps. Especially the one with the nicotine and alcohol. Prior to reading that website, I would assume the Peeps to just blow up or something ridiculous like that. However, the Peep just seems to melt in the beaker filled with alcohol. For the cigarettes, the Peep seemed to take the nicotine just fine, and no extreme signs of hazard was seen on the Peep. But when those two are combined, the Peep was toasted. It definitely made the Peep turn crisp black, and I can just imagine what it smelled like. It kind of made me think, if that can happen to a sugared chick and make it look like that?, what can it do to MY body?
Thanks for the post, it was very educational and quite hilarious. I never liked Peeps though, but maybe I will put them to good experimental use:)
genevieve99 · April 7, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Peeps are a great symbol for the commericialized version of Easter. Every year my mother would get me an overload of peeps and put them in my basket. I know I claimed to like them a lot one year, must have been a time with an intense sugar craving, and after that they were a hit every year. I guess my mother bought them more for the idea of the peeps because she certainly must have seen how they got thrown away EACH YEAR. I do remember putting them in the microwave and loving them even more after that only because it was fun to watch them blow up. Watching a microwave… probably not the smartest form of entertainment I suppose!
I actually really liked the Humor in Mate Selection post, as I’m sure you expected in us college students. haha. I think that even though having a companion I can laugh with is HIGHLY important it wouldnt be in the top 3 characteristics for me. I think that every person has a ‘funny bone’ in them, it’s just a matter of finding a mate who can relate and laugh at whatever level of humor you may be on. I found that article very interesting.
Thanks!
dmorriso · October 30, 2009 at 9:11 am
Haha this is crazy! Yes i do believe that these scientists have way too much time on their hands, but I am glad they do. This was fun to find out. I am going to have to show this to my roommate… she loves peeps (and yes eats them each holiday). After seeing how these peeps do not dissolve in water even at high temperatures, that makes me never want to put one in my body! So much for me thinking they are mainly sugar.
But besides the fact that they are gross, they are very fun to watch blow up. Haha… so, I guess the peeps are something that should stick around a while longer. They may not be used for their purpose of ingestion, but they still have a purpose of entertainment. 🙂
eKnowlton · November 16, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I think it’s always interesting to see what foods we think are just sugar and fun are doing to our insides when we eat them. On a side note, during high school a group of Seniors decorated one of our classrooms with Peeps to celebrate Easter. The teacher, who had a very good sense of humor, was finding them everywhere the rest of the year.
Also the “The Role of Creativity and Humor in Human Mate Selection” article is very interesting to me because I always look for humor and find it to be extremely important to maintaining a healthy relationship!
Happy Cinco de Mayo! | Laura’s Psychology Blog · May 4, 2009 at 7:45 pm
[…] on her website. You gotta love the animation of an exploding Peep. I guess we have a thing about peeps at our […]
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