Everyday Systems: nosdiet: message 1697 of 3212

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This is an interesting tid-bit from a newsletter I get...The Dr. that
writes it is very NoS ...Bonnie=0D
=0D
RIP for an "American classic" killer=0D
=0D
I wish I could say I'm going to shed a tear for the demise of the=0D
hostess Twinkie, but alas, I cannot muster one. Nor can I turn on=0D
the waterworks for Wonder Bread and those modern junk-food=0D
classics, the Ho-Ho and the Ding Dong. For all of these are=0D
products of Interstate Bakery, the nation's largest wholesale bakery=0D
=97 a company that's not much longer for this world, if all that's=0D
just in the cosmos has anything to say about it.=0D
=0D
A few weeks ago, this leviathan of the junk-food industry filed for=0D
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to USA Today. Some=0D
blame the Atkins diet and the current trend in low-carbohydrate=0D
eating for the move, but some analyst sources quoted in the piece=0D
cite a failure to innovate since their 1950s heyday that has spelled=0D
doom for the company. But how much more can you really=0D
innovate refined flour and sugar?=0D
=0D
Whatever the reason this giant has been felled, I say: Good=0D
riddance.=0D
=0D
And in case anyone thinks I'm being a little too hard on the old=0D
Twinkie and friends, let me offer this reminder as a sort of eulogy.=0D
It's the list of just a few of the 28 ingredients in these little death-=0D
bombs, complete with a translation of what they really are. Ready?=0D
Here goes:=0D
=0D
Enriched wheat flour (flour that's been bleached, starched and de-=0D
nutritionized)=0D
Sugar (self-explanatory)=0D
Corn syrup (more sugar)=0D
High-fructose corn syrup (more sugar yet)=0D
Partially hydrogenated soybean, cottonseed, or canola oil (trans-=0D
fats)=0D
Dextrose (even more sugar)=0D
Modified cornstarch (glucose polymers =97 more simple sugars)=0D
Cornstarch (Yay! More sugar!)=0D
Corn flour (refined to worthlessness, of course)=0D
Corn syrup solids (you guessed it =97 another type of sugar)=0D
Dextrin (a starch/sugar hybrid)=0D
=0D
Wow, that's 8 different kinds of sugar, three kinds of starch, and a=0D
dollop of killer trans-fats. Yum! The other 17 ingredients are=0D
largely preservatives and colorings. I could only find four=0D
ingredients on the whole list that were at least somewhat good for=0D
you: Eggs, whey, salt and water.=0D
=0D
No doubt, the ingredient list for Ho-Hos and Ding Dongs reads=0D
similarly, and I KNOW there isn't a single redeeming ingredient in=0D
Wonder Bread. That stuff's been making us into a nation of pasty-=0D
faced diabetics for years.=0D
=0D
So shed no tears for the Twinkie and its brethren =97 they're good=0D
only for killing us. Their maker's bankruptcy is a healthy victory=0D
for all Americans.=0D
=0D
=0D
Snack-cake breakfast ends in violence=0D
=0D
When 9 year-old Kevin Logan opened up his Little Debbie Zebra=0D
snack cake on the school bus one morning, he surely had no idea=0D
that the mere sight of the confection would send the child next to=0D
him into a violent rage=85=0D
=0D
Yet that's exactly what happened when Kevin wouldn't share his=0D
sugary breakfast (Little Debbie for breakfast =97 great parenting,=0D
huh?) with the boy sitting beside him. Before Kevin knew what=0D
was happening, his aggressor had smacked him upside the head=0D
with a stuffed Tweety Bird doll. When Kevin defended, he was=0D
slammed into the bus window, dragged to the aisle and stomped.=0D
=0D
By the time the bus driver pulled his attacker off of him, poor=0D
Kevin was unconscious. No one knows what became of the Zebra=0D
Cake, but I'm sure it must have ended up in the bully's belly. It=0D
just goes to show how powerful and addictive sugar can be =97=0D
people will resort to violence to get it. Of course, this did happen=0D
in North Carolina, one of the fattest states in the Union (or should I=0D
say former Confederacy)=85=0D
=0D
After his release from the local hospital, Kevin's mom no doubt=0D
treated him to a lunch of Ding Dongs and Ho-Hos down at the=0D
corner 7 Eleven. I wonder: What will Kevin end up like as an=0D
adult? I'm sure he'll blame his glands for his 58-inch waist and=0D
amputated legs from diabetes. Either that, or he'll sue Little=0D
Debbie.=0D
=0D
His mother's the one he should sue, though. Eating habits are=0D
learned, not instinctual.=0D
=0D
=0D
Never sugarcoating things ('cause I'm sweet enough already),=0D
=0D
William Campbell Douglass II, MD=0D
=20

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