[vel0city]

Pretty much all oils are processed foods. Vinegar is a preservative and is a processed food. Most salts are processed and are common preservatives. Flour is a processed food.

The reasons why Twinkies are so shelf stable are largely the same reasons why flour or rice or olive oil is shelf stable.

Better be careful of those chemicals like sodium chloride and dihydrogen monoxide.

[teddyh]

I think it’s the same as “chemical”. When something’s bad, it’s a chemical. When something’s good, it’s not.

I.e. nobody knows what “processed” means, they just know it’s bad somehow.

(Re-post of <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27397900>)

[sdo72]

> Salt? Flour? Oil? Oats? Rice? Garlic? Black pepper? Most ground spices? Nuts? Beans? Honey? Vinegar? Quinoa?

Sure, if you are assuming Americans are mostly eating these things daily.

[vel0city]

Twinkies are made up almost entirely (by mass) of the things listed above. The only major thing missing is sugar.

[sdo72]

Should you check the ingredients again? that's your definition of most?

[vel0city]

Twinkies ingredients, minus the less than 2% (was saying most by mass):

Sugar, Water, Enriched Flour, High Fructose Corn Syrup (sugar), Tallow (animal fat/oil), Dextrose (sugar, from the HFCS), Egg

Twinkies are >98% sugar, flower, oil, with a little bit of egg.

You could substitute the tallow with other similar kinds of oils if you wanted, like say coconut oil.