I was never a fan of the Twinkie. Not sure I've ever eaten one, in fact. Chocolate Ho-Hos and Ding-Dongs were more my speed while growing up, when a box of saran-wrapped sweets was no stranger to my kitchen cupboard. I'll never forget Twinkies, though, with all the speculation about how long they can live on a shelf without spoiling. What's in those things, anyway? The crew over at Discover magazine knows, after taking a peek at the book Twinkie, Deconstructed.

Packed into the Twinkie is something called cellulose gum. The stuff can absorb 15 to 20 times its own weight in water, and a pinch sprinkled on water floats like a jellyfish. "A moistened spoonful becomes a clear, gelatinous, slimy glob in a matter of minutes," says this Discover article.

Cellulose -- the word just makes me think cellu-lite -- interestingly replaces fat with a fatlike texture, without adding a single calorie to the cake. Cellulose gum is not digested, you see, and merely helps hold a flavor on your tongue. It also helps the Twinkie filling shine. There's also artificial butter (the kind you find on movie popcorn) in your Twinkie. And some other stuff too. But you'll need a copy of the book for the entire scoop.

I will tell you, though, that Calorie King calculates that one tantalizing Twinkie contains 150 calories and 4.5 g of fat (2.5 g are saturated but none are from the trans fat family). It also boasts 20 mg cholesterol, 220 mg sodium, 19 g sugar, 1 g protein and even 20 mg calcium.

Does all this Twinkie talk make you want one? Not me. No Ho-Hos or Ding-Dongs either, thanks.

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Twinkies are the latest junk food to come out with a 100-calorie snack pack. So if you crave that spongy cake with the creme filling, you can now enjoy three miniature cakes in a controlled 100-calorie pack.

But are all these calorie-controlled packages really a good thing? I often wonder if people who would normally pass by chocolate chip cookies and other processed treats buy these items just because of the implied weight control benefit. But really, 100 calories of junk is still junk.

Rather than choosing small amounts of nutritionally-void food, why not make your own 100-calorie packs? You'll still have all of the convenience, but you'll have a lot more nutritional quality. That's a much better way to get some bang for your buck.

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How terribly bad can a Twinkie really be? According to some, not so bad.

It's not that an occasional Twinkie-type treat, or sandwich cookie, or cheese puff, or cracker is inherently bad. It's just that they hog up caloric space. Healthy versions of these snacks are no different.

Think about it this way: If your nutritional requirements are a train, junk foods are taking the seats of rightful passengers -- like a bowl full of berries, for example, or a handful of nuts. Says Stephen Daniels, pediatrician in chief at The Children's Hospital in Denver: What's left after all the nutritional requirements are met are a hundred or so "discretionary calories" to be used like dietary funny money. That' a pretty tight caloric budget, allowing for two cookies, a handful of chips, or well, one Twinkie.

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Just a quick tidbit of information to help you out during your next trip to the supermarket ...

You're just about done with your shopping; you've picked up your healthy fruits and vegetables, did your best to stay in the perimeter of the store (because you've learned that most of the healthy food is located there, whereas much of the junk food can be found shelved in the middle area of the store), and now you're looking for some healthy, whole wheat bread.

"Oh, look at that one," you say to yourself. "It's a nice, rich, brown color. That must be very healthy." Is it? Maybe, but maybe not. The trick that many food manufacturers are playing these days when it comes to bread is that they will label their product as being Whole Wheat, when in fact it only contains a small amount of whole wheat flour. Instead, it is made from enriched flour (the same kind found in white bread) and is colored with a caramelized dye -- hence the rich, brown color.

Are you a fan of SPAM? I'll admit, I've never had it -- that I know of, at least -- and I'm not planning on picking some up any time soon. But it's a cheap, convenient source of protein that some might even say is tasty, so is it something that I should give a try?

My guess is no, considering that it's full of preservatives and sodium, not to mention meat that comes from questionable sources. And if you ask me, any food that was developed during wartime as an alternative to real food shouldn't be trusted (the twinkie, for example.) Still, one of the writers at eDiets taste-tested all the brands of SPAM (even no-name!) and gives his rating. You can see the article by clicking here.

What do you think of SPAM?

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Let's play guess the item. This item has ingredients derived from rocks and natural gas among it's ingredients. What is it? You'd probably guess something that goes in the foundation of your house, or a part for your car. Not something edible ... like a twinkie. But according to this article, that's exactly what's in a twinkie, among other things.

For a popular food item, it's surprising how little actual food is in a twinkie. What's not surprising is that the Twinkie is an edible item that was developed at the height of war, when food was scarce. Fair enough, but why are we still eating them? I can tell you that those chemicals aren't going into my body. What about you?

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