Mmmm a twinkie! a tasty chemical treat

In the wake of the recent news about Hostess, the make of Twinkie, going out of business and the possibility that we may never see a Twinkie again on the shelves, I decided to resurrect a blog I wrote back in 2007:

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I recently came across an article in NEWSWEEK written by Anne Underwood (NEWSWEEK, March 5, 2007 P.50)

The article goes over a book by Steve Ettlinger called: "Twinkie, Deconstructed" where he traces all ingredients of  a Hostess Twinkie to their origins. Ettlinger- the author of other food books like "Beer for Dummies"- decodes all 39 ingredients in the little crème-filled cake. At the heart of the book is a fundamental question: why is it you can bake a cake at home with as few as six ingredients, but a Twinkie requires 39? And why do many of them seem to bear so little resemblance to actual food?

The answer: To stay fresh on a grocery-store shelf, Twinkies can't contain anything that might spoil, like milk, cream, or butter. Once you remove such real ingredients, something has to take their place- and cellulose gum, lecithin, and sodium stearoyl lactylate are a good start.

Even so, it can be unsettling to learn just how closely the basic ingredients in processed food resemble industrial materials. Is this a cause for concern?  According to the author, No. Though you wouldn't want a diet that consists solely of Twinkies. Ultimately, all food, natural and "otherwise" is composed of chemical compounds- and normal ingredients like salt have industrial applications too. Still it gives you a pause when Ettlinger describes calcium sulfate, a dough conditioner, as "food-grade plaster of Paris"

Below are samples of ingredients found in a Twinkie, none of which you will find in your pantry:

Still hungry?

Check out the rest of the 37 ingredients that eaters ingest in pictures by Photographer Dwight Eschliman.