Marshmallow In Ancient Egypt

Do you enjoy eating hides and bones of animals? Great because you have been eating them since you were about four. We grew up with these fluffy puffs as we held them over campfires while singing acoustic songs. These cute and adorable, yet sticky balls are known for one thing: S’mores. Yes they are quite delicious, the way the Hershey’s chocolate melts onto the graham cracker as it absorbs warmth from the heated puff, but do you ever wonder what is inside of these mysterious white balls? The Marshmallow was used for medicinal purposes in Ancient Egypt. Wait, what? This sweet, artificial thing was used as medicine? Being half Egyptian and hearing this… well, let’s just say I won’t be telling people I’m Egyptian anymore. (ASHAMED, sad to think of what my Egyptian ancestors would think of marshmallows today) Well according to the Guild of Food Writers “the marshmallow is actually a plant” called the Althaea Officinalis (Pictured right)(Smith, 2012). The medicine is a “honey candy that was flavored and thickened with Marsh-Mallow plant sap” (Bellis). Treating a child’s sore throat was the main use of marshmallows at the time. In Egypt, their marshmallows were sweetened but nothing compared to today’s crap. In the 20th century, the production of marshmallows soon turned into a competition. Alex Doumak, an American, discovered a faster

The sad thing is that these shit filled puffballs are actually being bought. Americans spend “on average $125 million” on marshmallows a year (Smith). If you really think about it, marshmallows are becoming more common. Easter Peeps, for example, are one of the most popular Easter treats in America since 1958. Americans buy more than 1.5 billon peeps each Easter (Soergel, 2015). They are taking over our country one animal ligament at a