The Death of Twinkies and the Dangers of Food Addiction

Americans are crying right now--Hostess is bankrupt, no more Twinkies, Ho Hos and so forth. I really doubt that these snack cakes are going anywhere. Hostess may be no more, but do you really think Twinkies are going to go away? They may no longer be HOSTESS Twinkies, but I am willing to bet that brand will be snapped up by someone.

Remember Bun bars? You probably don't, if you are not a Fort Wayne native. But I was completely hooked on these things, and I can remember buying a snack size bag before Halloween, and eating them in my bed. These candy bars came in a variety of flavors. My favorite was vanilla. The vanilla center was then covered with chocolate and peanuts. I loved them. If you've ever eaten a Reggie bar (named after Reggie Jackson) back in the 70s, they were about the same as the Bun bar.

Then, they stopped making the Bun bar. Or rather, Clark bought the bar, which had been made by Wayne Bun Candy Company, based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Clark then sold to Pearson's, and it was a pleasant surprise when I actually came across the Bun bar after I thought it was lost forever. It was a nice bit of nostalgia, and I was glad to know they were around, but when they first disappeared, my life did not end. My life did NOT end.

Sure, I was disappointed, but there's so much food out there, so much candy, that I just DEALT with it. It was the same thing when Chen's went out of business. That restaurant played a huge part in my childhood. We ate there for family dinners, we got take out from there, and we had our cast party from "Anything Goes" there. When they closed, yes, it was the end of an era, but there are other Chinese restaurants in town, and in time, my mother discovered one that serves actual food and is not one of the numerous buffets in town.

I used to go to Hardee's to get their ham and swiss sandwich combo. God, it was fabulous! I'd order that with large fries and a large Coke. God knows how many pounds that added to my already heavy frame. But they went of business too. At least here in Fort Wayne. I am not sure where the nearest Hardee's is.

And if they somehow stopped making Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola, I am not sure if I would be upset about that. Because I am a food addict, and I know for damn sure I am a colaholic. I've gone weeks, even months, without drinking soda, but then I will have just one and I'll be back on the wagon. However, I can't drink soda like I used to. The other night, I stopped to have McDonald's (what I really wanted, which was Pizza Hut, was closed) and I topped that off with more Coca-Cola, plus a bag of Kroger brand cheddar cheese popcorn. That snack was recommended to me by a Facebook friend as a good substitute for Oke-Doke brand popcorn, which I can't find around here. I either have to order a whole case of it, or drive to a major city to find it. Occasionally, I CAN find it here in town, but it's sporadic.

But I'm finding that food doesn't taste as good anymore, and I can't eat as much. Earlier this summer, my appetite nearly shut down to nothing. Nothing really tasted good, and if I did eat, it was an astonishingly small amount. I chalked it up to depression. But I made an important discovery. I noticed that this summer I felt anxious for some reason. I couldn't figure out what it was. I vowed to eat better. I cut back on the junk food and started exercising more. And gradually, the anxious feeling that I would have when I first got up started to go away. There were days when I actually felt good and excited about the day. I finally, finally made the connection. Trash eating was affecting my mood. Also, I had developed a sensitivity to acidic food. I'd woken up nauseated for the past year or so, and would throw up. I never made the connection until recently, when I had breakfast for lunch one day. I had some orange juice, and the next day I woke up nauseated, and I threw up. Aha, I thought. So I had brunch with a friend on a Sunday, had orange juice again, and I threw up the next morning. Since I was eating tomatoes in the summer, that explained why I'd been throwing up then, and hadn't thrown up in weeks, because I was no longer eating tomatoes.

I remember when I was 12 or so, I would eat 6 or 7 tacos from Taco Bell every Saturday. Now, three tacos fill me up. I don't eat nearly as much as I did when I was a kid, but now I'm overweight. Even obese. I'm right on the borderline. It scares me, because heart problems, diabetes and cancer run in my family. I'm trying to exercise for at least 20 minutes a day, on average. I'm cutting back on the junk food. I need to cut it out entirely, because I want to sculpt my body into something I am proud of. I could be a walking time bomb, for all I know. That tumor that was growing in my uterus could have been the result of so much junk food over time. I am pretty sure now that junk food was probably a huge factor in my being depressed when I was younger. There were probably other factors, as well, but food was probably the main factor. And no doctor asked me about my diet. They just prescribed me pills and later ointment, for that rash that never seemed to go away, until I cut back on sugary foods and started taking some supplements. I got that out of a magazine. The doctor said of my rash, that it could be one of several hundred things causing it. He never once asked me what I ate. And when I found out what was causing it, I was astonished that it could be so easy.

While I was writing this, I got up to get myself a slice of cake. I cut the piece, and put it on a plate. As I was getting ready to put the rest of the cake away, it slid off the plastic tray it was on and landed on the floor, icing side down. I'd only taken two slices out of the cake, and the rest of it was now ruined. I sort of think that's appropriate, somehow.

Comments

Robert Enders said…
As long as Americans continue to put crap in their mouths, companies will produce products like Twinkies. Nobody should be terribly concerned about the fate of Hostess, and so far I haven't heard about any calls for a Hostess bailout.

But they should have had the same attitude about the fate of GM. As long as American keep driving cars, there will be a domestic auto industry. Don't give me this nonsense that the suppliers would have gone out of business, because they would have just sold more parts to GM's competitors.
Gloria said…
Agreed.

But they are blaming it on the unions. I'll never understand why people demonize union members when CEOs make so much.

And Twinkies will live on, just not with the Hostess name. People don't get this.

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