Product Description

A pop-science journey into the surprising ingredients found in dozens of common packaged foods, using the Twinkie label as a guide

Like most Americans, Steve Ettlinger eats processed foods. And, like most consumers, he often reads the ingredients label—without a clue as to what most of it means. So when his young daughter asked, "Daddy, what’s polysorbate 60?" he was at a loss—and determined to find out.

From the phosphate mines in Idaho to the corn fields in Iowa, from gypsum mines in Oklahoma to the vanilla harvest in Madagascar, Twinkie, Deconstructed is a fascinating, thoroughly researched romp of a narrative that demystifies some of the most common processed food ingredients—where they come from, how they are made, how they are used—and why. Beginning at the source (hint: they’re often more closely linked to rock and petroleum than any of the four food groups), we follow each Twinkie ingredient through the process of being crushed, baked, fermented, refined, and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder with a strange name—all for the sake of creating a simple snack cake.

An insightful exploration into the food industry, if you’ve ever wondered what you’re eating when you consume foods containing mono- and diglycerides or calcium sulfate (the latter, a food-grade equivalent) this book is for you.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #372196 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this delightful romp through the food processing industry, Ettlinger, who writes on consumer products (The Complete Illustrated Guide to Everything Sold in Hardware Stores), says, "Believers of urban legends take note.... Twinkies are not just made of chemicals," nor will their ingredients allow them to last, "even exposed on a roof, for 25 years." But what exactly their ingredients are, and how they come from places like Minnesota and Madagascar to be made into what Ettlinger calls "the uber-iconic food product, the archetype of all processed foods," is the subject of his book. Each chapter looks at individual ingredients, in the same order as on a Twinkie package, so Ettlinger finds himself traveling to eastern Pennsylvania farms to study wheat, as well as to high-security plants that manufacture highly toxic chlorine used in minute amounts to make the bleached flour that is "the only kind that works in sugar-heavy" Twinkies or birthday and wedding cakes. His exploration of the manufacturing processes of cellulose gum ("perfect for lending viscosity to the filling in snack cakes—or rocket fuel"), for example, cleverly reveals how Twinkie ingredients "are produced by or dependent on nearly every basic industry we know." (Mar. 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
If you want to explore all the unpronounceable and highly suspect ingredients we consume daily, what better starting point could you choose than that classic golden crème-filled cake reputedly capable of withstanding a nuclear holocaust? In Twinkie, Deconstructed, Steve Ettlinger sets out on just such an exploration, with mixed results.

"Where does pol-y-sor-bate six-tee come from, Daddy?" This is the question that inspires Ettlinger to research every ingredient listed on the back of the Twinkie wrapper, from enriched flour right on down to Yellow Dye No. 5. Having "always wondered what those strange-sounding ingredients were" as he read food labels "purely out of habit" (though not, apparently, out of any concern about what he was pouring down the throats of his innocent progeny), Ettlinger travels to plants, mines and refineries the world over, where he witnesses all manner of centrifuging, sifting and mixing of the flammable petroleum products that eventually make their way into these snack cakes. He also talks to lots of PR guys, who alternately give him the big tour, the runaround and the reassurance that there is absolutely no reason to fear any of the highly processed, sinisterly named ingredients that make a Twinkie's creamless "crème" creamy and its eggless cake crumbly -- even when, as happens time after time, they say they can't really go into how those ingredients get made. And Ettlinger, it seems, believes them.

Twinkie, Deconstructed takes such a rosy view of its subject as to give the reader intellectual whiplash. Ettlinger sees no omen of imminent apocalypse in the fact that the biotechnology corporation Monsanto produces both Roundup® herbicide and Roundup Ready® soybeans, genetically modified to resist Monsanto's own product. Those ®s, by the way, appear on every page of Twinkie, in loving lists of the countless processed foods -- "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter® . . . Lee Iacocca's Olivio® . . . Edy's® Grand Light Rich & Creamy Vanilla" -- that incorporate, say, mono and diglycerides.

Nothing wrong with divergent opinions -- that, plus polysorbate 60, is what makes chocolate and vanilla. "Processed" doesn't equal "toxic" -- enriched flour wiped out pellagra, a once common nutritional deficiency that killed 100,000 Americans in the 20th century alone. But Ettlinger's characterization of partially hydrogenated soybean shortening as a "magnificent culinary achievement" is hard to swallow, as is the argument of high fructose corn syrup producers that portion size, rather than HFCS itself, is responsible for the obesity epidemic. I can't help suspecting that rather than getting some answers from the huge, and hugely opaque, food-processing industry that profoundly affects the way we feed ourselves, Ettlinger settled for drinking the Kool-Aid®.

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Review
In this delightful romp through the food processing industry, Ettlinger, who writes on consumer products... discusses what exactly [a twinkie's] ingredients are, and how they come from places like Minnesota and Madagascar to be made into what Ettlinger calls "the uber-iconic food product, the archetype of all processed foods. --Publishers Weekly

Customer Reviews

Errors in Washington Post review
As the author, I have to alert you that the Washington Post review contains at leat four factual errors that imply the actual opposite of what I wrote, to wit:

"He also talks to lots of PR guys..." - I did not, and not one PR person is cited. I spoke with engineers, technicians, and scientists.

"PR guys...give him... the reassurance that there is absolutely no reason to fear any of the highly processed, sinisterly named ingredients... And Ettlinger, it seems, believes them." -- Wrong. Amid all my citations of toxic and explosive sub-ingredients, there is no affirmation of any PR guy's assertions.

"Ettlinger's characterization of partially hydrogenated soybean shortening as a `magnificent culinary achievement' is hard to swallow..." -- Ironic. This quote is actually a joke about the French and cheap pastries that introduces a section on trans fats, where I state that shortening "was almost killing us."

Powell also implies that I accept " ...the argument of high fructose corn syrup producers that portion size, rather than HFCS itself, is responsible for the obesity epidemic." -- Wrong. I emphatically write that the issue is clearly unresolved and full of controversy.

I would appreciate it if Amazon would correct these errors or at least publish my corrections. Thank you.

Steve Ettlinger

If we are what we eat .... OY!!!
Steve Ettlinger is an interesting man. In about a dozen previous books, he has often demonstrated not only his interest in and concerns about various consumer issues and realities, but has investigated each to a degree not commonly found in books written for the general public. For example, The Complete Guide To Everything Sold In Hardware Stores, The Complete Guide To Everything Sold In Garden Centers, The Complete Guide To Everything Sold In Marine Supply Stores, and Guides For Dummies to both French and Italian wines, he probes each seemingly obvious area to a degree of depth and detail so that more than information is provided: Reading his books can be more accurately characterized as an experience.

In the volume at hand, his newest published effort to date, he chooses one seemingly simple, immensely popular and globally ubiquitous food snack item, the Twinkie to scrutinize, one ingredient at a time, as a sometimes humorous and sometimes gut wrenching example of what has come to pass as food in our times. He is not picking on these readily recognizable little cream-filled snack cakes. Rather, he is using them as a paradigm representative example of how foods and non-foods alike are processed and folded into our intake supply. He raises more questions than he answers - seeing his responsibility as primarily that of providing consumers with information that might be helpful to them.

He researches, visits manufacturing plants, speaks with various company people and winds up with a chapter by chapter analysis of the etiology, processing and purpose of each and every ingredient listed on the Twinkies label. In case you have not read one lately, these include in descending order of volume in the product: Wheat Flour; Bleach; Ferrous Sulfate; B Vitamins - Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (B1), Roboflavin (B2) and Folic Acid; Sugar; Corn Sweeteners; Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Glucose and High Fructose Corn Syrup; Corn Thickeners: Cornstarch, Modified Cornstarch, Corn Dextrins and Corn Flour; Water; Soy: Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil and/or Animal Shortening, Soy Lecithin and Soy Protein Isolate; Eggs; Cellulose Gum; Whey; Leavenings; Baking Soda; Phosphates: Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate and Monocalcium Phosphate; Salt; Mono and Diglycerides; Polysorbate 60 (the ingredient his own child asked about that got the author going on this subject); Natural and Artificial Flavors; Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate; Sodium and Calcium Caseinate; Calcium Sulfate; Sorbic Acid; and FD&C Yellow No. 5 and Red No.40. Quite a list from something that looks simple enough to have been made from flour, sugar, water and cream (which it, originally, was!)

I expect that we have all looked at ingredient lists from time to time - some of us with more scrutiny than others - but this analysis of each and every thing that has gone into a particularly well known product is, in my experience, both unique and profoundly informative. Not just about Twinkies but about the nature of our entire food supply, much of which contains various degrees of processed ingredients. This book is, then, a close look at one product but is best understood as a microcosmically specific look at a MUCH larger situation. Processed foods we consume every day.

Bullet statements on the back of the dust cover, raise the aura of the themes presented, documented and offered up for our information and consideration. Among them are:
-Flour dust is explosive
-Homeland Security figures prominently in modern food production
-Glucose, the form of sugar that adds bulk and sweetness to Twinkies' crumb and filling, also adds glossiness to shoe leather and prolongs concrete setting
-The iron compound in enriched flour is also used as a common weed killer
-Only a small percentage of the 750 pounds of cornstarch that's manufactured annually goes into food like Twinkies. Two-thirds is used to make paper, cardboard and packaging "peanuts."
-When cooked, cotton cellulose is transformed into a soft goo, perfect for lending a slippery sensation to the filling in snack cakes - and rocket fuel
-Phosphorous, one of the seven elements necessary for life, is also what puts the glow in tracer bullets and causes artillery shells to explode.

As it turns out, some of the ingredients start off as natural foods and are processed into an entirely unnatural component. Some others are not now nor were they every naturally occurring substances - they are lab creations. Man made chemicals. Some were pretty clearly never intended to be ingested by animals - human or otherwise. Some seem likely harmless while others sound insidiously toxic. From a manufacturing point of view, each and everyone makes sense to achieve one of three basic goals. These are to 1) Extend the shelf life of the product; 2) To keep the cream filling and cake around it from blending into each other while they await consumption and, of course 3) To keep the costs of production as low as possible so as to increase the profit margin to the greatest degree allowable by the FDA.

There are natural, or MORE natural food alternatives to just about everything. Some may be worth a try. I remember swearing off red meat for a year or so after reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle in college. I have had a similar reaction to processed "foods" that turn out to contain little if any actual "food" since finishing this book.

If you already have strong opinions about this subject, I doubt that this book will change your mind - unless you are open to having it changed. Whether or not it causes you to rethink some of your eating habits, I think the curious will find it an engaging, entertaining and at times frightening read. Check it out!

Fun and Follies with Food Facts
Asked by his children what the ingredients in a Twinkie creme-filled cake really were, and where they came from, Steve traveled the world to find out, interviewing over a hundred people in the process. The book is well-written in the sense that it can be read very fast, and is entertaining until the number of technical errors and chemophobia intrude, which for me began on p8. I happen to enjoy processing plant and mine tours, even vicariously, and do not shy from hundreds of facts and factoids. It was fascinating to find where the biggest plants were that made the ingredients of a Twinkie, which are: wheat flour, bleach, iron(II) sulfate, vitamins B1, B2, B3, sugar, corn sweeteners, corn thickeners, water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, lecithin and soy protein isolate, eggs, cellulose gum, whey, leavenings, baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate, salt, mono and diglycerides, polysorbate 60, natural and artificial flavors, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sodium and calcium caseinates, calcium sulfate, sorbic acid, FD&C Yellow No. 5 and Red. No. 40. All but 2 of the chapter headings follow this ingredient list. There is an inadequate index and no references, an ominous sign of what is to follow. There are no pictures or drawings, which this topic screams for. The concept was excellent, as were the metaphors. Between that and the potential entertainment value my rating would have been 5-star, even though the target audience was 12-14 years old, IMHO.

A fine appreciation of food chemistry was finally given on p258-260: "The fact that chemicals, especially those in foods, are part of nature..." Well and good, but Steve infiltrates all kinds of snide comments about "chemicals" almost everywhere else, such as one about the surprising purity of synthetic chemicals as opposed to natural (p208) -- the reverse of the truth -- that most natural chemicals are mixtures, and many synthetic ones are very pure. Part of the difficulty is that Steve does not define what a chemical is, or know the difference between an element, a compound, and a mixture, or between a rock and a mineral. Except on p173, where Steve appears to understand that the reactive and toxic elements, sodium and chlorine, react to form salt (sodium chloride), which has none of the properties of its precursors. Time after time he tries to scare the reader by implying that the toxicity of the precursors (called intermediates by chemists) somehow makes it into non-toxic products. On p261: "...try reflecting on the fact that one of the world's most lethal chemicals, chlorine, and one of the most reactive chemicals, sodium, have an exalted place...[in] the salt shaker." This, sadly, is more typical. Of course, there is no elemental sodium or chlorine in salt, and the properties of the elements do not persist in salt. And a rock should not be confused with a mineral.

So to repeat grade-school material, all substances are chemical. Dreams and electronic phenomena are not. Substances are either pure or mixtures. The smallest stable units of matter in substances are molecules. In an element, all the atoms in all the molecules are the same, except for isotopes, which still have the same chemical properties. In a compound, meaning that 2 or more elements are present in the molecule, all the molecules are alike. Sugar (sucrose) is a compound formed from a glucose and a fructose with loss of water; it is not a mixture of glucose and fructose as Steve claims (p71). A rock is a mixture of minerals. Granite is a mixture of the minerals quartz, mica and feldspar, and most minerals are well-defined compounds. Eating refined salt or calcium sulfate is not the same as eating rock. Steve wrote that the toxic and flammable element phosphorus is part of the Twinkies recipe (p154). This is nonsense. Steve never learned from a chemist to write: "phosphorus compounds, phosphates, are part of the Twinkies recipe"; no, he has to scare us and give chemicals in general a bad name on almost every page.

Steve wrote: "Ferrous sulfate is light gray with a bluish tinge, just as you'd expect an iron derivative to look" (p42). Pure iron(II) sulfate is actually pale green, just as I would expect it to look.

Steve wrote: "Despite being a mere mineral, calcium is really a so-called earth metal, like sodium...(p232). Calcium is not a mineral, because it is never found as the free element. Steve meant gypsum (calcium sulfate), I think. Calcium belongs to the family of elements called alkaline earths and sodium is in the family of alkali metals.

Whenever Steve has trouble with the chemistry of a food additive, his writing becomes very terse and flawed. From p250: "A reaction of benzene with nitric acid, itself a product of hydrogen (usually from natural gas) and nitrogen (usually from liquid air) that have been passed over over a thin platinum wire mesh, makes nitrobenzene and leads to the all-important aniline, a colorless oily liquid with a strong, pleasant odor that happens to be highly poisonous." When this is untangled, we find: (1) the reaction of hydrogen and nitrogen over a heated catalyst of iron oxide and potassium aluminate at 400 atm leads to ammonia, not nitric acid; (2) ammonia and air are heated to 650° and passed over a platinum/rhodium catalyst to make nitric acid, not nitrobenzene; (3) benzene and nitric acid with considerable sulfuric acid yields nitrobenzene; (4) nitrobenzene with iron powder or hydrogenation over nickel gives aniline; and (5) aniline does not have a pleasant odor in my nose. None of this makes much sense to a non-chemist without pictures of the molecules involved, which are sorely lacking. All the reactions are over 100 years old, so industrial secrecy should not have been an issue.

Steve fell for the myth that eating saturated fat causes hardening of the arteries (p181). See "The Cholesterol Myths" by Uffe Ravnskov, 2000; and "The Modern Nutritional Diseases" by Ottoboni.

A list of another 50 errors are available by e-mailing: kauffman@bee.net.