News Flash: Twinkies may contain weird ingredients

Did you ever hear that urban legend about how Twinkies are not actually cooked, but are rather created through a strictly chemical reaction? That there is no heat involved in the process of creating a Twinkie? Well, I don't know if that's true or not, but the truth is, most of the ingredients in a Twinkie are petroleum or mineral-based. And when you eat a Twinkie, you are eating five different kinds of rocks.

Mmmmm....rocks.

That's the main hook in this new book called Twinkie Deconstructed. Think Fast Food Nation for processed foods. The book is a look into what, exactly, all those polysorbates and bisulfates and disporidium gum arabics really are. We eat them all the time...makes sense that we should know what the hell they are. And as for the minerals, there are the expected ones like baking soda, but the author of the book says that a lot of the Twinkie's "colors and flavors rely on basic chemicals derived from crude oil or natural gas." Now that's just weird. Just weird enough to be believeable.

Just for the heck of it, a deep-fried Twinkie. Good God!

So yes...I think I'm going to go out and buy some Twinkies now. All this talk of Twinkies is making me really want a Twinkie. Yee-ha. Good day.

Hyperlinks:
- Dissecting the Dessert [Washington Post Express]
- Twinkie Deconstructed [Amazon]
- Fast Food Nation [Amazon]

Technorati tags: Twinkies, muckraking