September 9: Twinkies

Somehow the topic of Hostess Twinkies came up this evening and my wife shared that the Twinkie does not actually contain any sugar. Of course, I thought her statement was ludicrous (and I don't mean the rapper). But, my wife stuck with her argument insisting that the proof of that lies in a book called "Twinkie Deconstructed", which she heard about on NPR. And, while her argument does not hold up as she presented it, as sugar is in fact a Twinkie ingredient, her overall point was quite valid. Upon a closer look, I was surprised by some of the things I learned about the make-up of a Twinkie. First, there are 39 ingredients in a Twinkie! Yes, 39. That's a lot of parts to such a small, spongy snack cake. Secondly, some of the ingredients are what you might consider unsafe to eat. For example, take corn dextrin. Sure, it's found in a lot of different food products. However, it's also that glue you find on postage stamps and envelopes. How about cellulose gum. Used frequently as a thickener for favorites like ice cream and low-fat salad dressings. Yummy! Also used in rocket fuel to give it "a slightly gelatinous feel". Yep, the core components of eggs, flour and sugar are considerably outnumbered by additives and artificial replacements. So, why would Hostess go and replace such natural ingredients with chemicals and other man-made products? Shelf life, plain and simple. Those natural ingredients do not provide the longevity a food manufacturer needs in order to turn a hefty profit by keeping the product in a ready-to-eat condition on a grocery store shelf for God knows how long. So, they replace eggs with emulsifiers and butter with artificial flavors and colors. There's an interesting article from ABC News from which I learned most of this stuff that you can read here. It's kind of sad when you think about it. And only leaves me wondering what would Twinkie the Kid think about all of this? His expression says it all.