Twinkies Have a Dark Secret
By: Shoshanna Levy
Published: September 15, 2011

It's a no-brainer that Twinkies are not a health food. What may not be as obvious, is the fact that even though it's cake, it contains beef fat. I suspect there are vegetarians who thought the occasional Twinkie would be no big deal.
"Our Hostess Fruit pies contain beef fat. The shortening ingredients noted on our labels are: vegetable (may be soybean and/or canola and/or cottonseed and/or palm oil) and beef shortening".
The bottom line is, no matter what level of health you are on, please read those labels. Personally, I don't support processed junk such as Twinkies, but as long as people are eating them, they may as well be aware of what they are eating. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to food.

Comments:
Nancy
September 15, 2011

I'm 55 years old and have been consuming Twinkies since I was a VERY small child and they don't seem to have hurt me OR my health one iota!  They're a great treat and I even have an entire COOKBOOK devoted on how to use Twinkies in recipes. 
Thanks for your *advise* on this treat, but I'll go right on eating and enjoying them until they're no longer produced by the Hostess Co.
Mel

I'm sure when you started eating them 40+ years ago they were not made from Genetically Modified corn and soy that produces it's own herbicides, amongst other *deliciously* ridiculous chemicals. Unfortunately for us food is not the same as it was 40, 30, 20 or sadly 10 years ago.
Jack

Two things: first, it's spelled *advice*, unless you're deliberately trying to use poor grammar, and second, lighten up. Just because you like Twinkies doesn't mean that others might want to know what's in them.
jess

Ohhh! so that is why deep-fried twinkies are so tasty!!!!