Who doesn’t remember being dragged, terrified, to the doctors office as a child, then having your nerves soothed as you were presented with a colorful, sweet lollipop to ease the traumatic visit? Due to health concerns, most doctors opt to give young patients stickers as opposed to lollipops these days, but did you know that candy has its origin in medicine? 18th Century apothecaries prescribed sugar candies for chest ailments and digestion problems, and the first candy-making machine was invented by a pharmacist! In the words of the “Candy Professor” Samira Kawash, “I think that the idea of candy as medicine still lingers in the way we’re aware of its effect on our bodies. … Candy looks like the opposite of medicine, but it turns out that a lot of the ways we think about candy’s dangers are closely related to the idea of candy as a kind of drug.”