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.