"How many of you are Twinkie eaters?"

As part of the MUB lecture series, Steve Ettlinger, who admits to having eaten over 30 Twinkies as part of research for his most recent book, deconstructed the ingredients of one of America's classic Hostess snacks, the Twinkie.

As he traveled across America, he visited factories, plants and even mines in order to track down all of the ingredients of the "golden cake with vanilla crème filling."

"I just think it's really, really interesting," said Ettlinger, whose book "Twinkie, Deconstructed" came out in March 2007. "I had been thinking about doing a book on the exploration of ingredients of processed foods for a while, and the Twinkie has a little bit of everything."

Speaking to a crowd of about 200 on Wednesday, Ettlinger explained the origins of some of the 39 ingredients found in Twinkies. One ingredient, Phosphate is mined out of Silver Springs, Idaho, which Ettlinger visited as part of his research for his book.

Ettlinger wasn't the only one fascinated by the ingredients. UNH freshman, Ashley Heim, couldn't believe all the steps that went into making a Twinkie.

"It's just really amazing," said Heim. "Not that we eat it everyday, but it's something to think about."

UNH professor of organic chemistry, Richard Johnson, was less impressed with the science behind Ettlinger's book, but still said he wouldn't be eating a Twinkie anytime soon.

"I worry students will come away from this and be afraid to eat [a Twinkie]," said Johnson, who said the human body contains some Phosphorus anyhow. "It's important to look at the ingredients, but just because it's a big word doesn't make it bad."

In addition to exposing the ingredients of the Twinkie, Ettlinger looked at the process by which those ingredients were gathered. An open-ended question he has is what the carbon footprint, or the sum of the greenhouse gases used to make a product, of the Twinkie is.

"It's unappetizing to think of food as part of the industrial world," said Ettlinger. "The carbon footprint of the Twinkie is immense, I imagine."

The book, which Ettlinger was inspired to write after his daughter asked him what Polysorbate 60 was as they were looking at the ingredients in packaged ice cream, has caused him to buy more local, whole foods - but he won't discourage the occasional eating of the Twinkie.

"One's not going to kill you," said Ettlinger. "It's if you eat a lot of it."

And if he had to describe what the Twinkie tastes like, for Ettlinger, it's nothing like the ingredients.

"It tastes like vanilla and butter," said Ettlinger, "Neither of which are in it."

For more information on the Twinkie go to www.twinkiedeconstructed.com.