Everyone seems to be sad to see Hostess products go, even nutritionists. Am I the only one who is happy about it?
Homemade Twinkie
photo provided courtesy of elanaspantry.com
Instead of being sad to see Twinkies go, I am sad (and disgusted) that people are mourning the death of an extremely processed fake food. A fake processed food representing a junk food culture at least partially responsible for making over 60% of us Americans overweight or obese. I’m even more sad (and more disgusted) that Twinkies are seen as an “enormously important cultural icon” according to New York University nutritionist Marion Nestle.
I really don’t want my food culture represented by things called Twinkies, Ding Dongs or Ho-Hos. And it’s unfortunate that so many people have childhood memories and nostalgia tied to these products. I am happy that Twinkies and Wonder Bread won’t be in lunch boxes anymore, but I realize that they will probably just be replaced with some other fake food.
Twinkies themselves are made from 39 different ingredients: enriched wheat flour, sugar, corn syrup, niacin, water, high fructose corn syrup, vegetable and/or animal shortening (containing partially hydrogenated soybean, cottonseed and canola oil and beef fat), dextrose, whole eggs, modified corn starch, cellulose gum, whey, leavenings (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate), salt, cornstarch, corn flour, corn syrup solids, mono and diglycerides, soy lecithin, polysorbate 60, dextrin, calcium caseinate, sodium steroyl lactylate, wheat gluten, calcium sulphate, natural and artificial flavors, caramel color, yellow #5, red #40.
Do you really want to be putting all of that in your body (and your kid’s bodies) when you don’t know what half of those ingredients actually are?
How about we start cooking real foods and making new memories. If you must make memories with twinkies at least make them yourself. I feel like if you want to eat “junk food” at least eat homemade junk food. Then you know what is in it, and you probably won’t eat it as often because you actually have to cook it.
Click here for a gluten-free and dairy-free twinkie recipe from Elana’s Pantry.
Stay tuned for more Twinkie fun. Next week we’re going to talk about how Twinkies can actually alter your brain chemistry. Scary…
Source: http://todayhealth.today.com/_news/2012/11/16/15221956-twinkies-even-nutritionists-mourn-the-ultimate-junk-food
