If there’s one thing I hate to see on store shelves around this time of year, it’s “Peeps.”

These sugar-coated, marshmallow-molded, chick-imitating disasters masquerade as Easter candy. But truth be told, they’ve got to be the most disgusting option available for a child’s Easter basket — or his tummy, for that matter.

I’ve always wondered how long Peeps have been sitting on a store’s shelf, protected as they are in their overpackaged cardboard box and plastic wrapping. But it turns out, that’s not even the real issue.

Of greater concern is what these things are actually made of.

Peeps’ parents (i.e., the Peeps manufacturing company) claim they consist primarily of sugar and marshmallow.

But scientists at Emory University recently tried to melt Peeps…and they failed.

They couldn’t boil Peeps, either.

Even dipping a purple Peeps chick in liquid nitrogen didn’t phase the “candy.”

So…if fire, or liquid nitrogen, or boiling water can’t kill a Peep, how can our stomachs really dissolve it? Makes you wonder where a Peep goes once it gets inside you, doesn’t it?

What if you throw a Peep away?  CAN you throw it away? Or, as the Emory experiment implied, is a Peep indestructible? If Peeps do get loose in the environment, how long will they last? No one really knows.

If you don’t want to find out, this Easter, beat the Peeps. Buy some nice organic chocolate instead.