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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. --Arthur Boehm
| AUTHOR: | Marion Nestle |
| CATEGORY: | Book |
| MANUFACTURER: | University of California Press |
| ISBN: | 0520224655 |
| TYPE: | Food, Food Science, Food industry and trade, Health Policy, Human Services, Marketing, Moral and ethical aspects, Nutrition policy, Political Process - General, Politics - Current Events, Social Science, Sociology, United States, Consumer issues, Cultural studies, Dietetics & nutrition, Food manufacturing & related industries, USA |
| MEDIA: | Hardcover |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 9790520224659 |
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Customer Reviews of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (California Studies in Food and Culture)
More About Politics Than Food If you want to know about the ins and outs of food science or the food industry, this book will be disappointing. But if you're interested in how the food induatry (agriculture, food processing, retail and restaurant) influence and dominate our governments' approach to food, this book is the one for you.
Dr. Nestle, a nutrition scientist, has spent years consulting with the USDA and other government agencies dealing with food. She had a lot to do with creation and publication of the famous "food pyramid."
In this work, she was subject to relentless lobbying by food companies determined to prevent the government from recommending that people eat less of their products. They sent whole armies of lobbyists, not just to Washington, but to state governements, universities, and anywhere else they could influence food science.
They donate money to universities, fund studies of their own, give gifts to legislators and woo regulators. They frequently get their own corporate representatives appointed to regulatory and administrative positions. As a result, they have watered down or changed any attempt to advise eating less fat, less sugar, or less of anything.
I think the great value of this book is revealing how our government works. This is not just about food. Every facet of government is subject to corporate influence and domination. You can really see this in the insurance companies' ability to derail health insurance reform, and the drug companies' blocking drug purchases from foreign countries.
Perhaps we can take our government back, step by step. Food Politics is a good teaching tool for those who want to fight back.
David Spero RN...
If you liked Fast Food Nation
Eric Schlosser writes about FOOD POLITICS, "If you eat, you should read this book." But while Schlosser revealed to a mass public the disturbing business of fast food, Marion Nestle takes on most of the food industry, and not without consequences (you can view a letter she received from a lawyer representing the sugar industry on the website for this book).
She argues that basic nutrition science is simple. Yet there is mass confusion about what to eat and what effects foods have. And the reason for all of this misinformation is that it benefits food producers to have an innocent flock of customers who are left uncertain of how to judge what is healthy from what is not. She clearly explains what means the food industry uses to influence policies to their benefit, often at the expense of public health. And she gives detailed examples that illustrate the extent to which some companies and industries go to sell their products.
While her suggestions for reform may be somewhat wanting, her descriptions of how decisions about food get made on political levels is masterfully researched and she is always respectful of science. While those people with vested interests in certain industries may label her a communist, she is merely critiquing a history of policies and marketing strategies that have, to be sure, provided us with an abundant food supply, but have also led to increased obesity and high rates of chronic diseases.
I don't think most of these reviewers read this book
This book is not some stupid Michael Moore-style "expose" of the "food lobby," and anyone simpleminded enough to get that out of it...well...probably thinks Michael Moore makes sense too.
Marion Nestle has a pretty impressive resume, and has good authority to write a book like this. Sure, you might think she's trying to tell you that Great Big Establishment Secret in describing how different manufacturing/producing groups try to make their products appear in the best light at the FDA, USDA and so on. But HELLO, PEOPLE! That is the stuff you learn in Economics or Marketing 101. Who are these simpletons who believe any businessperson wouldn't want to talk up his/her product's good side, and downplay its bad? Are there really people that naive about how commerce works? Apparently so, if this book is shocking to anyone. I weep for our touchy-feely education system sometimes...and reading these reviews is one of those moments.
Anyhow, the book pretty much lays out what anyone who's ever had a weight problem knows. We eat too much, move too little, and rely on high-caloric-density foods in the US. Eat less, and eat fewer junk foods. Duh.