A lot of the nationwide products that got started a century ago were first produced without any artifical ingredients. Until years later as each additive creeped in. I imagine a lot of them under persuasive sales presure from the vendor of the additive.
Doesn't mean they were not yet seriously processed or truly the healthiest to consume.
Thats one of the points im trying to make. Incomes have stagnated, people at the lower end already were kind of splurging, now they cant justify it at all. So further cost reductions have to go into the product. COVID also masked the ability of companies to just extract more profit out of the product due to the price shocks that never went back down.
Doesn't mean they were not yet seriously processed or truly the healthiest to consume.
OTOH there's always vegan Twinkies now:
https://oopsydaisysweets.com/products/vinkies
So attractively priced at only $30.00 a half dozen, they just sold out :(