Enter the Twinkie

There's a recent article in the Heath / Food Science section of Newsweek magazine's website about "decoding the 39 ingredients in a twinkie." What a good idea -- I should have thought of that.

Here's a quote from the article, which is a preview for an upcoming book on the subject of what goes into every twinkie:

"At the heart of the book is the fundamental question: why is it you can bake a cake at home with as few as six ingredients, but Twinkies require 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."

I can't speak to the virtue of the book, but the prolific reader commentary at the end of the article will give you a good ideas to the nature of the debate and skepticism surrounding it. At the very least, it seems to attempt a reasonable explanation of why foods are so heavily processed (essentially it's commercialism, they say).

Whether it presents a serious case regarding the twinkie's impact on health due to the ingredients is another question.

The photo is courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Stand and be Counted

In the inaugural post to Good Ingredients, I mentioned the multitude of ingredients found in a typical canister of store-brand bread crumbs. Here's a little evidence.

Readers may recall the claim that such an unassuming product could actually have 30 or 35 ingredients listed. Pictured below is the inspiration for that claim, something I found lying around in my shared pantry:


You can click on the image for a larger view and read for yourself. But as you can see, there are about 40 ingredients without counting the sub-ingredients (those in parentheses), and a full count yields around 55 ingedients alltogether.

Obviously not all of these ingredients are bad--most of them are not, in fact. But do you want them all? Well, I envy all of you whose lives are not already complicated enough; mine certainly can use some simplicity, however.

Here are a few of the highlights:

• 6 types of sugar, including 2 delicious varieties of corn syrup
• 5 types of dairy product
• 2 types of preservative

This type of ingredient list epitomizes the word "processed" as it refers to food: each stage of production requires a flurry of ingredients to aid the working of the aoutomated machinery, and ultimately to prolong its shelf life. In other words, it's good for business.

Although it does list "whole wheat flour" as a <2% ingredient, the main ingredient (the first one) is "enriched flour." This means it's not a whole grain, i.e. it has had the fiber and other nutrients removed, as well as probably having been bleached (again, a business-savvy move to prolong its shelf-life).

The sugar and the dairy listed aren't necessarily bad ingredients, but their variety might raise some eyebrows. It's easier to make a case against most preservatives, however.

Calcium Propionate was actually linked to beahvioral problems in children, something not too often measurably shown. Also, in this CDC report, there was an outbreak of stomach illness among school students associated with flour tortillas; the only unusual thing about the tortillas was an elevated level of potassium bromate and calcium propionate, two common and similar bread preservatives (results were not absolutely conclusive, but no other possibilities arose). They also noted that the elevated chemical levels in the tortillas were in fact common for other commercially sold buns and rolls.

Potassium Sorbate, on the other hand, is gennerally not indicated as a threat in scientific studies. Some less scientific and unsupported (but thorough) websites claim it is risky, and should at least be avoided. It's actually used in some cases to treat some patients with gastronomical infections. In any case, the FDA lists no recommended daily intake for it.