Twinkies made their grand reappearance today after an eight-month hiatus.
“The sweetest comeback in the history of ever” – the new box logo – included some changes for Twinkie.
First, the new Twinkies have a 45-day shelf life.
The old Twinkies only lasted 26 days (although, let’s be real, those sponge cakes lasted a lot longer than that).
So Hostess gave an overweight America just what it needs: a processed cake with nearly twice the shelf life.
Second, the new Twinkies are lighter.
One iconic yellow cake now weighs 38.5 grams and contains 135 calories. The old Twinkies weighed 42.5 grams and had 150 calories, according to the Associated Press.
Should you decide to chomp down a Twinkie, Time Healthland took the liberty of calculating how much exercise you’ll need to do to work off those calories.
– Hiking: 22 minutes
– Walking (slow pace): 50 minutes
– Jogging: 20 minutes
– Swimming (vigorously): 13 minutes
– Jumping rope: 15 minutes
– Scrubbing the floor: 30 minutes
– Running up the stairs: 10 minutes.
The figures are based on the 150 calorie cakes, which also had 4 grams of fat and 19 grams of sugar (which, by the way, is nearly FIVE TEASPOONS of sugar). But you get the idea.
Better get to running.
Marissa Harshman
I'm the health reporter for The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Wash. I started at The Columbian -- my hometown newspaper -- in September 2009. Reach me at marissa.harshman@columbian.com or 360-735-4546.