Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined Yes, Mined, and Manipulated into What America Eats
Written by Steve Ettlinger
Narrated by Mark Lund
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
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 of Plaster of Paris) this book is for you.
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Reviews for Twinkie, Deconstructed
116 ratings14 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The book is ultimately about our industrial food system - with a Twinkie twist. But that twist, I think, is what makes it work. Well, that and the author's casual and accessible style. It makes a heavy topic understandable, interesting and even fun. Industrial food system for the lay person.
There's lot of fascinating information. I knew our modern food system was a far cry away from resembling anything I'd get from my garden (if I had a garden) but this made it really sink in how totally foreign it is. And that vast difference is displayed with every ingredient, even the flour. Which can make it a little numbing towards the end because I just felt like I couldn't be surprised any more. (Then we got to the food dye section at the very end and it was different enough to spark my interest again.)
This book is massively interesting. I would think that anyone with even a passing interest in food would enjoy reading this book. Or those into Twinkies. Or anyone who wants to have a better understanding of food ingredients on a label. It's very even-handed, not an "all-natural food or death!" type book, so it works well for folks that will never eat a Twinkie again and also for those who'd eat a whole box of them. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Ettlinger takes us through each of the ingredients that make up a Twinkie, most of which are found in other packaged food as well. It is stupefyingly boring and utterly bloodless. (Only Ettlinger could write a chapter about industrial eggs and never mention the conditions of factory farm chickens.) He also doesn't seem to have a very solid grasp on the science--his explanations are obtuse and often depend on forced metaphors. His explanation of trans-fat was sadly mistaken and managed to witter on for about a page without a single mention of chirality. There was no narrative, no flow--just endless chapters with punny titles and stultifying messes of exposition.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Where do Twinkies come from? The author explores every ingredient in the Twinkie, from the first listed (wheat flour) to the last (Red No. 40). He describes how each ingredient is processed, whether mined, harvested or mixed with other chemicals to create an ingredient. At times a bit of a slog to get through with all the science and descriptive processes, but still an enlightening read on what goes into processed foods. I ate a Twinkie afterwards, fully informed! :)
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Totally fascinating! Despite your prejudices, the information in this book is presented from a factual, honest way that, depending on your disposition regarding food product, can scare you into never eating processed foods again, or, as in my case, help you understand and feel better about what you're putting into your body.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I thought I would like this book more than I actually did. learning where these complicated names of products come from seemed like a an interesting thing to do. the problem is that many of them are made in factories using very complicated processes and equipment. I feel like watching a video or seeing some pictures of the various processes would have illuminated how they come to life more effectively. simply using words didn't quite get it for me. the narrator's voice is very enthusiastic and the writer's curiosity about where the various ingredients came from was very genuine, but this method of explanation left a lot to be desired in my mind ,so thus I gave it just three stars.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I've been interested in reading this for a long while, but at a quarter in it's just pretty tedious and I think the rest will be more of the same. I'm sure there are some interesting nuggets I'm missing out on, but they're quite buried under a ton of details I don't care about. I think I would prefer it if the author didn't try to make it all into a story, just 'ingredient- how it's made' on repeat. Instead he'll mention what the weather was like when he visited the mill, or what the manager's name is, or about competing mills. I just don't care about any of that, and it adds to my life not at all. I like the idea of one food, seemingly simple but famous for having a lot of ingredients, standing in for highly processed foods in general, and I like learning about food, but this missed the mark for me.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After reading this, you won't be too quick to eat processed food. Amazing how some of the ingredients are made
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When his child asks him to decipher an ingredients list, Ettlinger realizes that he has no idea what those ingredients are and what they are doing in our food. It begins a journey around the country to see how corn syrup is made, where baking soda comes from and how one ingredient can be manipulated into many different forms.This is important information about all the additives that goes into our food, including ones that sound worse than they are. Ettlinger uses the Twinkie as a base point because it's iconic, just about everyone has eaten one, and it's full of confusing ingredients. But the book is dull. I give the author credit for sticking to the point, but the pages are full of chemical names, scientific names and the factory processes that take place, which gets to feel like walking through mud. Ettlinger tries to put some life into it, but it's not enough. The good news is that the information is something that I want to know. I've already referred back to it once, as my MIL wondered what a certain ingredient was and I happened to be reading this, so went right to what I needed to know. So for that, I'll be keeping this book for future reference.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Now that you can get these again, this is worth reading. Pretty much everything you know about Twinkies is wrong.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I really loved this book. It contains a lot of great information on where your food comes from. It was fairly dry in portions, but overall well written and interesting.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The chatty, flip tone was jarring next to the science. There was an irritating folksy tone throughout, that for me, made it difficult to sift out the fascinating information inside. There was also a threat from Hostess hanging over every word, so that Ettlinger was forced to say over and over that these ingredients are similar to what may be in Twinkies but there is no independent confirmation & so forth. Sounds like Hostess' lawyers have sharp teeth, indeed.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book started out strong, beginning with a question from the author's children," Where does Polysorbate 60 come from, Daddy?" I was curious to know where polysorbate 60 came from as well so I kept reading. Ettlinger explores processed foods by taking the ingredients from one of the world's most processed foods: the Twinkie. The ingredients become his chapter headings and he digs deeper into the plains of the midwest, oil fields in China, processing plants in New Jersey, and gypsum mines in Oklahoma. The book lost me when it went into detail of the chemistry of how rock is turned into baking soda and soybeans are hydrogenated into oil. It was interesting, but not really my cup of tea. In order to extend shelf life, companies began exploring food wastes that were just dumped into rivers 200 years ago. Now, they are common ingredients that are labeled "natural" in many food products because they come from natural resources. Kinda gross. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in food science and not so much to the casual reader who is curious to find out where polysorbate 60 comes from, because honestly, I still don't really understand what exactly it is made from.flag abuse
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Really, really scary.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really, really scary.