You may have heard rumors about legal issues concerning whipped cream. While that sentence may sound weird the first, or tenth, time you read it, it’s truly a topical issue in our “advanced” society. Who would have thought that humanity could reach the moon, master the art of flying, climb Mount Everest, and map the human genome, and yet not be able to contain itself from exploiting a dessert topping? While you may not have thought we could go any lower, we did, and in style.

According to Oxford Languages, whipped cream is “cream, typically sweetened, that has been beaten until it is light and fluffy.” But according to about 12 million Americans, it’s also an opportunity to get legally high off of nitrous oxide. While our lack of self-control is tragic, and I could write a book about control issues, in this article it comes second in importance to another major human flaw: consuming false media.

While this might come as a surprise to some, we cannot wholly rely on information fed to us through TikTok and other media platforms. Through the influence of our naïveté, entertaining yet majorly false information can easily become realities in our minds, rendering us completely unaware of the truth. In this specific case, the media proposition that the purchase of whipped cream has been made illegal in New York for anyone under the age of 21 fooled many.

Now, the news I bring may be of big relief for any pancake and waffle fans—whipped cream is still legal and purchasable in any store across the state. You no longer have to fear the potential absence of a neat little swirl of whipped cream beside your breakfast, or a sweet, messy pile of whipped cream on your ice cream sundae. This dessert topping is here to stay, narrowly avoiding the endless void of human stupidity. 

So how did we end up with our beloved New Yorkers having misconceptions about the recent ban on whipped cream sales? Well, it was Marisha Pessl, an American writer, who said that “within every elaborate lie, [is] a kernel of truth.” Media creators learned of the banning of a product related to whipped cream, and managed to twist that kernel of truth into a major-league lie.

In actuality, it was the nitrous oxide chargers, or whippets in slang, that were made illegal to customers under the age of 21. Nitrous oxide chargers are commonly used in the kitchen to transform cream into the foamy goodness that we know and love. However, the availability of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, was leading to the misuse of the product amongst many teenagers in order to get high. While nitrous oxide is used across the nation freely for sedation in medical practice, inhaling it with other intentions can be extremely toxic.

In summary, don’t trust everything you find on the Internet, as creators may desperately try to spread misleading information for their own personal gain. While this misinterpretation of the law led to nothing except a few laughs, it could be dangerous in a different situation. Furthermore, there is a massive population, including myself, that loves whipped cream. Don’t take away our privilege of getting to eat it.