Food politics : how the food industry influences nutrition and health / Marion Nestle.

ISBN:

9780520224650

9780520240674

Title:

Food politics : how the food industry influences nutrition and health / Marion Nestle.

Author:

Nestle, Marion.

Personal Author:

Nestle, Marion.

Publication Information:

Berkeley., California : University of California Press : c2002.

Physical Description:

xii, 457 p. : ill. : 24 cm.

Series:

California studies in food and culture ; 3

Series Title:

California studies in food and culture ; 3

Contents:

Introduction: The Food Industry and "Eat More" -- Pt. 1. Undermining Dietary Advice -- 1. From "Eat More" to "Eat Less," 1900-1990 -- 2. Politics versus Science: Opposing the Food Pyramid, 1991-1992 -- 3. "Deconstructing" Dietary Advice -- Pt. 2. Working the System -- 4. Influencing Government: Food Lobbies and Lobbyists -- 5. Co-opting Nutrition Professionals -- 6. Winning Friends, Disarming Critics -- 7. Playing Hardball: Legal and Not -- Pt. 3. Exploiting Kids, Corrupting Schools -- 8. Starting Early: Underage Consumers -- 9. Pushing Soft Drinks: "Pouring Rights" -- Pt. 4. Deregulating Dietary Supplements -- 10. Science versus Supplements: "A Gulf of Mutual Incomprehension" -- 11. Making Health Claims Legal: The Supplement Industry's War with the FDA -- 12. Deregulation and Its Consequences -- Pt. 5. Inventing Techno-Foods -- 13. Go Forth and Fortify -- 14. Beyond Fortification: Making Foods Functional -- 15. Selling the Ultimate Techno-Food: Olestra.

Conclusion: The Politics of Food Choice.

Subject Term:

Nutrition policy -- United States.

Food -- Marketing -- Moral and ethical aspects -- United States.

Food industry and trade -- United States.

Format:

Books

Electronic Access:

Publisher description Click here for a description of this book.
Table of contents Click here for a table of contents.

Publication Date:

2002

Publication Information:

Berkeley., California : University of California Press : c2002.

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Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
363.192 NES	Book	1	Standard shelving location	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing expos#65533;, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States--enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over--has a downside. Our overefficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more --more food, more often, and in larger portions--no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being.

Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is very big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly $900 billion in sales. They have stakeholders to please, shareholders to satisfy, and government regulations to deal with. It is nevertheless shocking to learn precisely how food companies lobby officials, co-opt experts, and expand sales by marketing to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries. We learn that the food industry plays politics as well as or better than other industries, not least because so much of its activity takes place outside the public view.

Editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, Nestle is uniquely qualified to lead us through the maze of food industry interests and influences. She vividly illustrates food politics in action: watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economics--not science, not common sense, and certainly not health.

No wonder most of us are thoroughly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics will forever change the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. By explaining how much the food industry influences government nutrition policies and how cleverly it links its interests to those of nutrition experts, this pathbreaking book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why.

Author Notes

Marion Nestle is Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University. Author of Nutrition in Clinical Practice (1985), she has served as a nutrition policy advisor to the Department of Health and Human Services and as a member of nutrition and science advisory committees to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. She is the author of Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism (California, 2003).

Reviews (3)

Booklist Review

For decades, the American food industry struggled to provide enough sustenance to keep Americans alive and healthy. By the end of the twentieth century, they had succeeded in producing and distributing not only more than enough to feed Americans, but enough to turn America into the world's breadbasket. Their success should be a cause for rejoicing, but at the beginning of the twenty-first century, success appears to be turning to tragedy. Americans die from eating too much food and the wrong kinds of it. The food industry, blinded to any concerns beyond short-term profits, preys on its customers with advertising, corrupts the political process, and manipulates the very nature of what people desire to eat. Nestle has thoroughly and carefully documented the food industry's unholy influence over public- health policy. Many people's lives and livelihoods are at stake in the conflict Nestle illuminates, and it will take scientific knowledge, political wisdom and leadership, enlightened and ethical corporate management, and consumer education to produce a positive outcome. Mark Knoblauch.

Choice Review

Nestle's well-researched book raises important points and delineates nutritional problems. However, Nestle tries but fails to present both sides of an issue equitably. Her most balanced portrayal concerns the dietary supplement issue. The look at political forces shaping important nutritional canon, e.g., the Food Guide Pyramid, is thought-provoking. Nestle (New York Univ.) offers a number of important suggestions to improve health by reducing portion size and overcoming exercise impediments. However, many solutions will not be practical, such as choosing only locally grown produce--a great suggestion for Florida, but it could result in scurvy in winter in the Dakotas. She proposes that educational materials have no industry logos and that there be no industry funded research. Fine in Utopia, but translated this means significantly less research and virtually no company-produced educational materials. Her accusations--that ties between nutrition scientists and organizations with industry foster a covert bias--in this reviewer's view is her "blind side." She wants the food industry to change, yet her anti-industry bias prevents her from acknowledging that industry alliances with those with knowledge is part of the answer. Thus, she outlines the problems but must do more to produce viable solutions for a healthier nation. ^BSumming Up: Optional. All levels. J. M. Jones College of St. Catherine

Library Journal Review

Nestle (chair, nutrition and food studies, NYU) offers an expos of the tactics used by the food industry to protect its economic interests and influence public opinion. She shows how the industry promotes sales by resorting to lobbying, lawsuits, financial contributions, public relations, advertising, alliances, and philanthropy to influence Congress, federal agencies, and nutrition and health professionals. She also describes the food industry's opposition to government regulation, its efforts to discredit nutritional recommendations while pushing soft drinks to children via alliances with schools, and its intimidation of critics who question its products or its claims. Nestle berates the food companies for going to great lengths to protect what she calls "techno-foods" by confusing the public regarding distinctions among foods, supplements, and drugs, thus making it difficult for federal regulators to guard the public. She urges readers to inform themselves, choose foods wisely, demand ethical behavior and scientific honesty, and promote better cooperation among industry and government. This provocative work will cause quite a stir in food industry circles. Highly recommended. Irwin Weintraub, Brooklyn Coll., NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Preface	p. vii
Introduction: The Food Industry and "Eat More"	p. 1
Part 1 Undermining Dietary Advice	p. 29
1 From "Eat More" to "Eat Less," 1900-1990	p. 31
2 Politics versus Science: Opposing the Food Pyramid, 1991-1992	p. 51
3 "Deconstructing" Dietary Advice	p. 67
Part 2 Working the System	p. 93
4 Influencing Government: Food Lobbies and Lobbyists	p. 95
5 Co-opting Nutrition Professionals	p. 111
6 Winning Friends, Disarming Critics	p. 137
7 Playing Hardball: Legal and Not	p. 159
Part 3 Exploiting Kids, Corrupting Schools	p. 173
8 Starting Early: Underage Consumers	p. 175
9 Poshing Soft Drinks: "Pouring Rights"	p. 197
Part 4 Deregulating Dietary Supplements	p. 219
10 Science versus Supplements: "A Gulf of Mutual Incomprehension"	p. 222
11 Making Health Claims Legal: The Supplement Industry's War with the FDA	p. 247
12 Deregulation and Its Consequences	p. 272
Part 5 Inventing Techno-Foods	p. 295
13 Go Forth and Fortify	p. 298
14 Beyond Fortification: Making Foods Functional	p. 315
15 Selling the Ultimate Techno-Food: Olestra	p. 338
Conclusion: The Politics of Food Choice	p. 358
Appendix Issues in Nutrition and Nutrition Research	p. 375
Notes	p. 387
List of Tables	p. 439
List of Figures	p. 441
Index	p. 443

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (3)

Booklist Review

Choice Review

Library Journal Review

Table of Contents