Twinkies: America's Favorited Junk Food Snack

In the article, “Don’t Blame the Eater, by David Zinczenko discusses about his childhood and how it has affected him. In addition, he explains thoroughly about fast food and the companies behind it. Zincozenko also talks about fast food companies have affected him and other in today’s world.

Junk food refers to cheap food containing high levels of calories from sugar or fat with little fiber, protein, vitamins or minerals. People in the United States consume massive amounts of these unhealthy products everyday that are produced by big industries like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. Investigative reporter Michael Moss argues that the food giants have hooked people with addictive foods that are harming our health. How do they do this? I strongly agree with Moss’s agreement because the food giants use schemes to advertise and market their unhealthy products to make them appear delectable. Thus, giving the viewer of the advertisement a high urgency to buy and eat the product that would eventually lead them to obesity.

In “Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” by Michael Moss is about the rising numbers of obesity in both adults and children throughout the United States. On the Evening of April 8, 1999, some of the biggest food industries CEO’s ad company presidents come together for a rare, private meeting. Discussing the emerging obesity epidemic and how they should deal with it. Big time companies food is lacking the nutrients that a person needs and is more concentrated on how to make it more desired. Keeping the customers coming for more. While the industries are gaining a profit, the customers are gaining a big belly.

Walls and shelves of different treats, and Buc-ee’s even presents its own brand of Beaver Nuggets - a sweet, crunchy corn snack. And in each store, a counter the size of a small New York City apartment is overly stocked with 30 flavors beef jerky, smoked sausages and other cured meats. When standing in that area, you can smell the Bohemian garlic beef jerky, which had a pleasant salty pungency, and the cherry maple, which is a lot more subtly sweet than it sounds. Next to that, there’s a quick-service restaurant, prepping many dishes, ranging from smoked brisket to Tex-Mex tacos. Looking at the options of spicy pickled quail eggs to sweet apple pies, the food provided at Buc-ee’s is more than enough to eat for a small break on the road. The varieties and large portions of food seemed to have a meaning beyond consumption itself. As people carry to go boxes and not even open or taste some of the food during their stop, the food loses its meaning of being eaten and gains a meaning of being a souvenir. The cultural food alone provokes customers to want to keep these seemingly authentic, home cooked items, perhaps to share or give to others as novelties and gifts. With that, Buc-ee’s intends to provide more than necessary.

In the opening paragraph for “Goodbye to My Twinkie Days”, Nguyen states that the Hostess cake company was going out of business; this meant a Twinkie would no longer be available at the snap desire of the author. Even though this widely known American snack cake had not grazed Nguyen’s taste buds in years, the feeling of the nostalgia rising cannot be stopped. As a child of Vietnamese immigrants, Twinkies ceased to be just small sponge cakes, they were a way of American integration for Nguyen. The fragrance of sugary, fake, flaky butter transported the author to the few years spent in primary

Food can partially shape a person's cultural identity. Geeta Kothari explores the cultural nuances between American and Indian food in the essay, “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” She expresses this through the symbolism of food, growing up and living between two different cultures. Kothari begins her story as a nine-year-old child curiously wanting to eat the same foods as American children: tuna salad sandwiches and hot dogs. She does not have the guidance from her mother regarding American food and culture. Kothari’s mom curbs the curiosity by reluctantly letting her daughter indulge in a can of tuna fish. Kothari describes the open can of tuna fish as “pink and shiny, like an internal organ” and she wondered if it was botulism (947). The way

Zinczenko use of pathos pulls at our heartstrings and allows us to sympathetic towards him. As a child, he fell victim to the fast food industry himself. “By age 15, I had packed 212 pounds of torpid teenage tallow on my once lanky 5-foot-10 frame” (463). He became obese at such a young age because he was a son of a single, hard-working mother whose only way of providing for him was through the fast food industries because of convenience. He would consume two to three meal a day from one of these popular food companies. “Lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald's, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut” (462). When one reads statements such as these they are forced to think about their own unhealthy choices that they have made in their lives. One contemplates if they too have fallen prey to the fast food industries. Zinczenko uses this appeal to allow us to assess our own moral and put ourselves in a perspective of someone who has been a victim of the fast food

The essay “Eat Food: Food Defined,” from Michael Pollan’s 2008 book In Defense of Food was written to address the American general public about the food industry. Pollan focuses on relatable topics as examples, such as family, common food items, and common belief that everyone wants to be healthy. The essay brings across Pollan’s point by establishing his credibility, explaining why this is important to us, and telling us how to react to the given facts. Pollan makes the readers inquire how we define food by drawing our attention to the importance of examining our food before eating it.

“Although many health authorities insist that there is no such thing as junk food, consumers find it a useful term for distinguishing nourishing food from products whose chief appeal is fun, convenience, and addictive taste; ‘bet you can't eat just one’ ”(Junk Food). Americans are spending about $4.6 billion a year on potato chips, and 23.5 billion a year on candy and gum. 46 Percent of adult Americans eat out on a typical day, and one third of them choose fast food. That is because the fast food industry has slowly become one of the symbols of American culture and is spreading to other cultures as well: McDonalds has 26,000 locations in 119 countries, Pizza Hut has more than 10,000 in 86 countries, and Subway has 14,500 in 75 countries. Commercials, signs, and huge advertisements are pushing junk food at us every day; people cannot even go to the grocery store without candy bars being lined up right by the checkout. The junk food industry realizes how appealing it can be. When a person is in a rush, they can easily eat a large meal without having to make a lot of decisions, work, dress up, or get out of their car. The speed and convenience fit Americans’ pressured lifestyles. It does not fit, however, to our health and wellness. A fast food meal, such as a Burger King Double Whopper with cheese, contains 965 calories, more than double the amount of fat, and as much as 750 grams too much sodium

Michael Pollan, writer of “Eat Food: Food Defined” and “Her Chee-to Heart” author Jill McCorkle are both aware of the unhealthy nature of processed foods, but Pollan would scold McCorkle for succumbing to the processed food’s appeal because he discredits the category “food product” as actual food; there is nothing about McCorkle’s relationship to food that Pollan will agree with. These nonfiction articles take different stances on food in the twenty first century. Pollan’s approach is to warn consumers about processed foods and to guide them into a healthier lifestyle while McCorkle describes her junk food addiction with stories that highlight the artificial foods people are so quick to love. Eric Schlosser’s “Why the Fries Taste Good” is the third article connected to Pollan and McCorkle’s; his writing explains why processed food is so bad but also provides an explanation as to why it is appealing. McCorkle and Pollan will never see eye to eye when it comes to what kind of food people should be eating.

In Don’t Blame the Eater, David Zinczenko composes his opinion on the fast food industry’s absence of nutritional information and more. Zinczenko starts his piece by giving his own life experience. He recalls his childhood trying to find food and that fast food was “the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal” (Zinczenko 462). By giving his own life experience, Zinczenko relates to the reader and grabs their attention.

“They (Food Production Corporations) may have salt, sugar, and fat on their side, but we, ultimately, have the power to make choices. After all, we decide what to buy. We decide how much to eat.” (Moss 346). In today’s society, junk food needs no introduction as everyone enjoys the taste of junk food because it is fast, tasty, and affordable but not everyone knows what all goes into their food. Over the years the food industries have drastically changed how food is produced and manufactured. Moss reflects upon the motivations and practices by the food industries which have transformed the American food supply by the use of the three key ingredients, salt, sugar, and fat. Through Michael Moss’s use of rhetorical appeals in his book Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, he discusses the extraordinary science behind what is considered tasty food, how multinational food companies use the key ingredients, salt sugar, and fat to increase sales and how other literary elements can help create trust between the author and audience thus increasing the effect of his arguments.

Moreover, Ferris talks about how throughout the history of the south, the politics of power and place, have lead to the establishment of a cuisine that includes both privilege and deprivation. Thus, continuously impacting the food patterns of the modern day south. Ferris states, “In food lies the harsh dynamics of racism, sexism, class struggle, and ecological exploitation that have long defined the south; yet there, too, resides family, a strong connection to place, conviviality, creativity, and flavor” (Edible South, 1) . This is exemplified all throughout the text by many accounts of antebellum cuisine influenced by that of African and Native Americans.

This paper will discuss the multifaceted relationships among food, and culture. I will be looking at the relationships people have with food, and explore how this relationship reveals information about them. Their food choices of individuals and groups, can reveal their ideals, likes and dislikes. Food choices tell the stories of where people have travelled and who they have met along the way.

Food is very much a part of pop culture, and the beliefs, practices, and trends in a culture affect its eating practices. Pop culture includes the ideas and objects generated by a society, including foods, and other systems, as well as the impact of these ideas and objects on society. For example, Mcdonald's is another of the thousands of fast food chains that populate our cities though they often use the term “popular culture” only to refer to media forms. Their popularity has also increased internationally. Although all humans need food to survive, people's food habits and how they obtain, prepare, and consume food, are the result of learned behaviors. Mcdonald’s, like other food chains, has made an effort to ‘localize’ its products so that they will be more successful in each different cultural context. These collective behaviors, as well as the values and attitudes they reflect, come to represent a group’s pop culture.