false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167199048m/19132.jpg 19132 3 In the U.S., we're bombarded with nutritional advice--the work, we assume, of reliable authorities with our best interests at heart. Far from it, says Marion Nestle, whose <I>Food Politics</I> absorbingly details how the food industry--through lobbying, advertising, and the co-opting of experts--influences our dietary choices to our detriment. Central to her argument is the American "paradox of plenty," the recognition that our food abundance (we've enough calories to meet every citizen's needs twice over) leads profit-fixated food producers to do everything possible to broaden their market portion, thus swaying us to eat <I>more</I> when we should do the opposite. The result is compromised health: epidemic obesity to start, and increased vulnerability to heart and lung disease, cancer, and stroke--reversible if the constantly suppressed "eat less, move more" message that most nutritionists shout could be heard. <p> Nestle, nutrition chair at New York University and editor of the 1988 Surgeon General Report, has served her time in the dietary trenches and is ideally suited to revealing how government nutritional advice is watered down when a message might threaten industry sales. (Her report on byzantine nutritional food-pyramid rewordings to avoid "eat less" recommendations is both predictable and astonishing.) She has other "war stories," too, that involve marketing to children in school (in the form of soft-drink "pouring rights" agreements, hallway advertising, and fast-food coupon giveaways), and diet-supplement dramas in which manufacturers and the government enter regulation frays, with the industry championing "free choice" even as that position counters consumer protection. Is there hope? "If we want to encourage people to eat better diets," says Nestle, "we need to target societal means to counter food industry lobbying and marketing practices as well as the education of individuals." It's a telling conclusion in an engrossing and masterfully panoramic exposé. <I>--Arthur Boehm</I> 20429 2002 Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (California Studies in Food and Culture, 3) total:438|5:101|4:172|3:139|2:21|1:5| 438 1657 1072 85 4 0 false false Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 13:11:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 07:51:08 -0700 2009 Fast Food Nation, The Omnivore's Dilemma, School Lunch Politics The Surprising History of America's Favorite Welfare Program, Organic, Inc. Natural Foods and How They Grew and Toxic Sludge is Good For You Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Mar 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Feb 08 00:07:04 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 15 11:22:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Dec 31 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Apr 29 18:54:19 -0700 2008 Tue Dec 30 21:16:34 -0800 2008
Flash back to late April 2008. Shane and I are in the car en route home from Harrisonburg, where we've been visiting friends. It's a gorgeous spring day in Virginia, and I decide to pass the time driving ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Feb 11 15:14:59 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 18 08:01:16 -0700 2008 Wed Feb 11 15:14:59 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jan 18 00:08:17 -0800 2008 Sun Jul 06 16:41:27 -0700 2008 ...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 21 07:42:05 -0800 2007 Wed Jan 02 17:28:08 -0800 2008
1. The gov't's advice to citizens about how to eat healthily is heavily influenced by food industr...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 07 11:48:30 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 08 18:08:50 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon May 07 18:49:56 -0700 2007 Mon May 07 18:59:10 -0700 2007 Food Politics is a little technical, it has plenty of charts, examples, and descriptions of historical battles over t...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Dec 14 20:42:05 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 20:45:42 -0800 2008
Industry interests (i.e., profit) trump ethical concerns about people's health, and Nestle demonstrates how the US government goes along with this.

Comprehensive and thick on details; probably not the most approachable b...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Fri Feb 27 23:20:42 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 23:22:08 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Feb 09 10:20:18 -0800 2008 Fri May 23 04:25:40 -0700 2008
That being said, the into in this book will open your eyes to the ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Fri May 25 23:58:39 -0700 2007 Sat May 26 00:07:37 -0700 2007 a) lobbying and politics;
b) the nutrion agenda of corporations;
c) consumer deception.

You may be critical of the fact presentation and conclusions drawn from this book but neve...more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Feb 18 10:10:21 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 10:14:10 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Mar 01 17:54:21 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 17:55:40 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Tue Jun 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 30 17:47:18 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 30 17:47:31 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Mar 09 20:32:59 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 20:34:37 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jan 13 10:08:01 -0800 2008 Mon May 12 15:17:56 -0700 2008 the best book to read. Nestle, who is we...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Aug 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 15 12:48:41 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 15 12:50:50 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Thu Oct 04 06:59:22 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 05 19:31:52 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 31 05:36:08 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 05:36:53 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=19132