Well, nothing good thats for sure. But my SciBling Dr. Charles has a interesting (if disgusting) post up on the inner life of a Twinkie.
I was most interested in the notorious "is it a liquid or solid?" filling:
*The Filling - primarily made of shortening (partially hydrogenated vegetable oil and beef fat). Also contains Polysorbate 60, a gooey chemical derived from corn, palm oil, and petroleum that substitutes for cream and eggs at a fraction of the cost. Cellulose gum gives the creme a "creamy" feel. Artificial vanillin is made in petroleum plants, avoiding the labor needed to hand-pollinate real tropical orchids that produce real vanilla.
Check out the rest of his post for more on the ...ahem...."ingredients." I was particularly disturbed by how many mentionings of petroleum-based products I would be ingesting if (by some weird happenstance) I ate one of these treats. One Twinkie has about 145 calories, however what happens when you deep-fry this already completely unhealthy monstrosity? I've seen them at fairs or huge concerts being touted as "the most delicious thing yet!" Can anyone attest to this?
According to the Hostess website, Christopher Sell invented the "fried Twinkie" at the Chip Shop, his restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. It was described by the New York Times in this way: "Something magical occurs when the pastry hits the hot oil. The creamy white vegetable shortening filling liquefies, impregnating the sponge cake with its luscious vanilla flavor. . . The cake itself softens and warms, nearly melting, contrasting with the crisp, deep-fried crust in a buttery and suave way. The shop adds its own ruby-hued berry sauce, which provides a bit of tart sophistication."
Something magical also happens to your arteries when you injest a deep-fried Twinkie. The creamy white filling becomes plaques which impregnante your aterial walls, building up creamy goodness and occluding blood flow to your heart and other organs. The arteries themselves harden, nearly bursting, contrasting with the soft, flabby nature of the rest of your body. The emergency room adds its own nitroglycerine-spiked IV juice, which provides ironic medical platitude.
Comments
We don't have Twinkies in Britain, so the Scots deep-fry Mars Bars instead. Given current fish stocks, deep-fried confectionery might be the only thing on sale in chippies before long.
Posted by: SciencePunk | March 2, 2007 10:33 AM
We can hope.
Posted by: MartinM | March 2, 2007 11:11 AM
For more Twinkie science (including a Turing test!), see also http://www.twinkiesproject.com/ , done by a couple of guys at Rice many years ago.
Posted by: sean | March 2, 2007 12:31 PM
But, but, but, it doesn't have any trans fat [any more].
Posted by: natural cynic | March 2, 2007 1:38 PM
According to an experiment conducted by Rebecca at Skepchick, they do taste better fried. The full report on Twinkies and other fried foods, see:
http://skepchick.org/blog/?p=427
Posted by: Peter | March 2, 2007 3:14 PM
Umm. So... Carbon based products are automatically bad for you if they are made by thousands of years of underground rotting, but not if made by a real plant? Seriously, the issue isn't if something is petrolium based, but what it does in the body, and frankly, there is way too much bullshit about that from people that just think "unnatural" = bad, but don't actually know what the hell unnatural means. Case in point, certain food colorings are 100% natural, but in a certain percentage of children has an allergic reaction, which is suspected to increase hyperactivity, that *unnatural* ones don't. Its irrelevant what sort of lab something comes out of or how its derived, only what it *actually* does do when injested, and all too often the "natural" products are the ones killing people.
That said, I am more into Zingers, with the frosting, than Twinkies, which might be actually worse, since its topped with a layer of frosting. lol I wouldn't mind them making the older "banana" based ones, except apparently they found people liked the vanilla better... :(
Posted by: Kagehi | March 2, 2007 4:59 PM
Its irrelevant what sort of lab something comes out of or how its derived, only what it *actually* does do when injested, and all too often the "natural" products are the ones killing people.
Absolutely. Its the transfat (well, none anymore apparently) or generally just fat/sugar thats artery-clogging. The petroleum-based ingredients are just filed under the 'eeeew' factor. And twinkies used to be banana-flavored? Knowing Twinkies it would be that faux-banana flavor (think the banana "runts"). Ew.
Now Tasty Kakes. That's what delicious is all about!
Posted by: Shelley Batts | March 2, 2007 5:11 PM
We don't get fried Twinkies here our part of the world (or Twinkies in any form whatsoever), but it doesn't matter; so much of southeast Asian cuisine is dripping with so much oil and lard I'm surprised the rate of heart disease isn't any higher than it already is. =P
Posted by: Hai~Ren | March 3, 2007 9:33 AM
LMFAO (Laughing my fat ass off.)
Posted by: dan dright | March 4, 2007 11:03 PM
But is this more, or less, effective than putting the Twinky in a box with a bunch of Ding-Dongs? (Couldn't resist). ^.^
Posted by: Azkyroth | March 11, 2007 11:45 PM