Are you concerned about the E. Coli outbreak that has spread to 6 states?

Neither of the men I described was obese or diabetic. In fact, the guy I went hunting with worked at an athletic club in San Francisco as a "trainer" of some sort. Neither was the one who shot Harvey Milk. All were addicted to colas and Twinkies, made with artificial sweetners. All died from liver and kidney failure.

What we don't know about the things offered to us by our industries is what we need to fear. What we do know is too often ignored. Just a few weeks ago I went to a very qualified physician (Stanford University graduate, Mayo Clinic residency, etc.) who prescribed for me a very expensive medication. I obtained a package insert and read it carefully before filling the prescription. The insert warned that if you ever took this medication and later developed cancer cells, the cancer would become "extremely aggressive". So, I called the Doctor and asked if he knew of this warning? He denied ever hearing of such. But, the combination of chemicals was made in order to obtain another patent for the base medicine that expired last year and was now obtainable for a fraction of the cost of the "new" combination. I am doing well without any of those chemicals, and the Doctor has room for another patient in his practice.

This has become a world where "defensive living" is absolutely necessary in order to survive, both physically and economically. The object of "corporatism"
is to gather your assets in the most rapid manner and with the least disruption to your daily habits. As much as 15-20% of all we spend is to reimburse these corporations for the costs of advertising and marketing their products. It is the Marketing Departments that drive corporations, not the Quality Control or the
research that might warn of harmful results of buying or using what can be sold
for a profit. The health and safety of the consumer is far down on the list of discussions that leads to a product being brought to market. And, when the topic is on the table, usually the Legal Department presents the matters in terms of "how much exposure to litigation and if the harms can be insured against, how much residual liability is retained versus the profits to be had". I've been there, sat in on these discussions and litigated the results that were obviously inevitable.

At the onset I will say, currently no one can tell you what a list of chemicals will do together (but I will give you my take based on what I know and the compounds). This is something that has been brought up more recently than you might think b/c of benefits of everything in a grape (for example) not adding up with its individual components. All that said, the list of twinkie ingredients, although long, is fairly benign. It basically contains standard baking ingredients, a B-vitamin (under its common name), food coloring, and few preservatives of various purpose (which are a drying agent, an oil, and an antioxidant). None of which is concerning by itself. When added together they are also not going to do anything. I can't see these interacting in anyway to be problematic. The only concern you might have is if any of these compounds hit an enzyme/protein in the body (I really don't think these can cause DNA damage in any way). There have been no macroscopic adverse effects shown from these compound currently (beyond what oil does to the digestive system etc.....I mean health effects). Currently, we do not know every enzyme/protein and we know even less about what all of them do, so this is possible and the most likely.

The difference to me b/c your examples and current thoughts is that people still didn't know the effects of x, y, or z. There was no real research done, just a bunch of propaganda to sell products. Really, we didn't even know what caused cancer at the time. Now, we have these chemicals rigourously tested by enzyme assay, cell assays, animal, testing.....and on and on before it ever makes it into a human.

I get that there is a general distrust of chemicals and have accepted this, but this whole world is made of chemicals and what scientists are trying to do is to understand how they interact and how to make a compound to help with a disease, etc. People always look for a solution whether it be a natural product or synthesized, the goal is the same.

Lastly, not to be nitpicky. But we have a fairly good guess about why sugar is so addictive. Basically, it plays a large role in metabolism and brain chemistry (your brain runs on glucose) and it is evolutionarily always a desired thing (we also didn't have regular meals everyday....way back when...many still don't).