Our world was significantly changed for the better in 1930 and we have the Continental Baking Company of Illinois to thank. They had all these unused shortbread pans laying around and someone thought, “What could we do with these?” They hit upon a brainstorm! Fill them with cake and inject them with a cream filling. Eureka! A new snack food was born and was christened: Twinkie.
Many wonder how the Twinkie got its name. There’s not really any mystery or mind-blowing story to tell. The Continental Baking Company was next door to a billboard that was advertising Twinkle Toes Shoes. That’s all the inspiration that was needed. However, eat enough Twinkies and you won’t need any Twinkle Toes shoes!!1
Through the years, Twinkies haven’t changed much, although the filling was originally banana cream rather than vanilla. With WWII, banana imports all but ended and a new flavor had to be substituted. Vanilla was in abundance, so it was used as was chocolate. Today, all flavors except vanilla have gone by the wayside.
Twinkies have had some slanderous things said about them. “Twinkies are made with all chemical ingredients and no actual food products, so they will stay fresh for decades. Some even go so far as to say that a Twinkie can survive a nuclear war. This urban legend was perpetuated when a science teacher in Maine kept one atop his chalkboard for 30 years. Although the Twinkie turned rather brittle, the teacher claimed the Twinkie sill appeared fresh and edible.
“Feeding off of the rumor that Twinkies are made with all chemical ingredients, some claim that Twinkies are not even truly baked. This rumor claims that Twinkies are produced by a chemical action that causes the chemical ingredients to foam when combined and then set.”2
Now, if these rumors were true, nobody would eat them. Nobody is going to eat a chemical agent that is an expanding foam. That’s stuff you buy at the hardware store to fill gaps and seal holes. The Spruce Eats website gives the answer to the rumors.
“Twinkies do in fact contain real food, they are truly baked, and the official shelf life is a mere 25 days. After this time, the Twinkie will continue to exist but will diminish greatly in taste and texture.
“It is true that 25 days is a considerably longer shelf life than most baked goods, but this is achieved by avoiding the use of dairy products and the air-tight cellophane wrapper. Rather than being made with real cream, the vanilla cream filling in Twinkies is made with shortening, sugar, eggs, [flour, canola oil], flavoring, and stabilizers, which spoil at a much slower rate…
“Further squashing the Twinkie “chemical cake” myth, Twinkies are baked just as any other snack or baked good. The brown bottom of the cake is actually on top as it bakes, which is why it achieves it’s golden brown color. After baking, the cakes are injected with vanilla cream and inverted so that the pale, golden yellow dome becomes the top.”3
Perception becomes reality. Tell a lie long enough and people will believe it. When the lies are told about Twinkies, it’s not the end of the world and there are more than enough people in the world who don’t believe it. Seriously, what box of Twinkies is going to make it 25 days in ANY of our homes?!?
When the lies are told about us, that’s a different story. The lies hurt, confuse us, and make us wonder why anyone would want to viciously attack us this way. Too often, we may get the feeling that we have to be myth busters, dispelling every untruth and righting the record. But is this really necessary?
Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:11-12, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; (12) Having your conversation (lifestyle) honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.” He continued the thought in 1 Peter 3:16, “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.”
The war on lies has an origin. Jesus spoke to the religious crowd in John 8:44 and said, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Lies are truly from Hell and carried by their chief emissary, the Devil.
Our defense against lies is to LIVE truth – God’s truth. Bible truth. Life-changing truth. Obviously, truth should come out of our mouths every time they are open. But when lies are spread about us, we could become very exhausted trying to chase them all down and answering their false accusations. Instead, Peter seems to say, “Let you LIFE be your defense.”
Let’s learn a lesson from Jesus and how He handled His false accusers in Mark 14:57-61. “And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, (58) We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. (59) But neither so did their witness agree together. (60) And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? (61) But he held his peace, and answered nothing…”
1https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-history-of-the-twinkie-1328770
2https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-twinkie-myth-1328772
3Ibid.
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