Twinkie Bailout?

I don’t think I fully processed the news: No more Twinkies.

Yes, I’m in favor of healthy eating. Yes, I’m all for nutritious snacks. Yes, I’m an advocate for educating the American public on what is in our food supply, on informed choices, and on the necessity of affordable, accessible options for more than the privileged few.

But I’m going to miss my Twinkies, although I haven’t indulged in a very long time.

When a dear friend hammered it into my disbelieving psyche that there would be no more Twinkies, I was stunned. While these retro little snack cakes are not part of my daily diet, they are part of my childhood, not to mention American culture.

So where’s the Hostess bailout?

We did it for cars. Why not Twinkies? Who cares if they have a shelf life up to 100 years? We’ll just “tweak” the Twinkie to update its virtues!

The Iconic Twinkie

I realize I’m days late to this critical topic. (Am I low on jolts of sugar to the brain?)

I know that Twinkies are junk food. (But didn’t Healthland suggest a little cake was good for us?)

No, Twinkies don’t qualify as sexy food or gourmet food much less “healthy” food. It’s a marketing challenge, to say the least. But for generations, they’ve been part of our memories and our humor – pop culture, if you will, before the use of the term was, well… popular.

And now I’ve got Hostess on my mind even as I read a New York Times opinion piece on the availability – or lack thereof – of healthy snack foods.

Snack Foods Lag Behind in Healthy Options

According to “The High Cost of Free Office Snacks,” Ezekiel J. Emanuel explains that we seem to suffer a shortage of low-calorie, low sodium, low fat foods in our office environments. While Mr. Emanuel mentions Starbursts, gummy bears, Skittles and potato chips, there is no Hostess product among the enticing evils in his list, and that we’re so devilishly drawn to.

Mr. Emanuel suggests that we’re in need of alternatives to the unhealthy options that currently reign on the job, in those locations that still provide them of course. He writes:

A study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine… found that daily servings of yogurt, nuts and fruit have the greatest capacity to help people lose weight. Conversely, an additional serving of potato chips every day led to a 1.69-pound weight increase over four years…. free snack bars should be overflowing with yogurts, pistachios, pecans, walnuts, almonds and a wide variety of fresh fruits. As for packaged snacks… The problem is, there just aren’t that many healthy packaged snack foods on the market today.

Okay Hostess – why couldn’t you have jumped on that bandwagon?

Twinkie-Lite? 

Why not develop  Twinkie-Lite or Twinkie-O (organic)? Twinkie-G with a gluten free sponge cake? Or possibly Twinkettes – “amuse-bouche” portions of all the delight we love today, but featuring reduced guilt courtesy of a smaller serving size?

Hey! Food.com offers a prize-winning gluten-free sponge cake. Hostess, are you listening?

And I return to the option of a bailout. Is there still time?

After all, when General Motors was bailed out, they reduced their offering, they focused, they revised design to adjust to changing times. They have the Chevy Volt, don’t they?

Hostess, why weren’t your great R & D minds – and your nutritionists – thinking along the same lines?

I for one would lend my culinary skills to working on this updated recipe. I’d assemble a team, don my best apron and cutest heels, then take to the kitchen with measuring cup in hand and determination in my heart!

Twinkie Blues in the News

This Latinospost.com article sums up the sorry state of affairs:

Hostess Brands, which makes Twinkies and other dessert snacks, announced on Friday that the company is going to downgrade operations and will lay off most of its 18,500 employees, the NY Daily News reported.

There have also been signs of an utterly understandable run on Twinkies!

For those of us still reeling from the news, it’s good to know that the web is abuzz with recipes if we are loathe to accept the demise of this American classic. Yes, that includes people like yours truly – committed to eating healthier than ever, which doesn’t eliminate my allegiance to an emotionally rich albeit nutritionally bankrupt treat now and again.

Twinkie Folklore, Foreign Futures?

For you who are, like me, taking a Twinkie Survivalist stance on this issue, hre is an absolutely delightful recipe with historical notes. Yes, Twinkies are part of American history, complete with Bill Clinton and Howdy Doody references!

While Twinkies were only an occasional “special” item in my mid-century mother’s household (and bagged lunches for school), Ring Dings and Yodels prevailed in our home, with Twinkies as the ultimate in much loved “bad” treats, doled out in miserly manner precisely because healthy eating was the general rule.

May I also confess that Twinkies made an appearance during my college years? (As to their contribution to the Freshman 10, I plead the Fifth.)

My own kids?

I’m not sure they’ve ever eaten a Twinkie. What does that say about me as a mother? If only I could remedy this oversight, somehow. Must I really resort to eBay for a last ditch effort at snagging this snack, or do I wait for the Chinese version to hit the market?

Image of Twinkies, Flickr, courtesy Robert Huffstutter, Creative Commons License 2.0.

 

© D. A. Wolf

Big Little Wolf’s Daily Plate of Crazy