Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4364 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-17
• Released on: 2007-04-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 624 pages

Amazon.com
How do we choose what to eat? Buffeted by health claims--should we, for example, restrict our intake of carbs or fats or both? Is organic food better for us?--we become confused and tune out. In supermarkets we buy semi-consciously, unaware that our choices are carefully orchestrated by sophisticated marketing strategies concerned only with the bottom line. That we should confront such persuasion is the major point made by nutritionist-consumer advocate Marion Nestle in her extraordinary What to Eat, an aisle-by-aisle guide to supermarket buying and thus an anatomy of American food business. "The way food is situated in today's society discourages healthful food choices," Nestle tells us, a fact that finds literal representation in our supermarkets, where food placement--dependant on "slotting fees," guaranteed advertising and other incentives--determines every purchase we make.

Nestle walks readers through every supermarket section--produce, meat, fish, dairy, packaged foods, bottled waters, and more--decoding labels and clarifying nutritional and other claims (in supermarket-speak, for example, "fresh" means most likely to spoil first, not recently picked or prepared), and in so doing explores issues like the effects of food production on our environment, the way pricing works, and additives and their effect on nutrition.

What Nestle reveals is both discouraging and empowering. Through ubiquitous advertising, almost universal food availability, the growth of portion size, and unchecked marketing to kids, we’re encouraged to eat more than we need, with consequent negative impact on our health. Knowledge is indeed power, and Nestle's lively, witty, and thoroughly enlightening book--the work, readers quickly see, of a food lover intent on increasing sensual satisfaction at table as well as promoting health--will help its readers become completely cognizant about food shopping. It's a must for anyone who eats and buys food and wants to do both better. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
According to nutritionist Nestle (Food Politics), the increasing confusion among the general public about what to eat comes from two sources: experts who fail to create a holistic view by isolating food components and health issues, and a food industry that markets items on the basis of profits alone. She suggests that, often, research findings are deliberately obscure to placate special interests. Nestle says that simple, common-sense guidelines available decades ago still hold true: consume fewer calories, exercise more, eat more fruits and vegetables and, for today's consumers, less junk food. The key to eating well, Nestle advises, is to learn to navigate through the aisles (and thousands of items) in large supermarkets. To that end, she gives readers a virtual tour, highlighting the main concerns of each food group, including baby, health and prepared foods, and supplements. Nestle's prose is informative and entertaining; she takes on the role of detective, searching for clues to the puzzle of healthy and satisfying nutrition. Her intelligent and reassuring approach will likely make readers venture more confidently through the jungle of today's super-sized stores. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Nutritionist Nestle's newest volume aims to help the American consumer determine what best to eat to improve or to maintain good health. Pursuing what she hopes is a unique and beneficial approach, she surveys a supermarket on a food-by-food basis, noting for each category what nutritional benefits are claimed and what really are the advantages and dangers in consuming any grocery offering. She documents how food industry concerns have perverted nutritional and origin labeling, dismayed that economics has once more trumped open information. She assesses the roles of trans-fats in processed food, methylmercury in fish, calcium in dairy products, salmonella in fresh eggs, sugar in cereals, and genetic modification. Nestle is particularly concerned that consumers understand all the implications, good and bad, of the perennially contentious "organic" label. Although the honest, prudent scientist in Nestle precludes her providing glib prescriptions or half-true advice on eating, she does present very helpful shopping guidelines for consumers determined to be vigilant about their food. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

A must-have book.
This book answers practically every question that today's confused American consumer could possibly have about food. It is valuable information, organized to be very user-friendly. Ms. Nestle cuts through the conflicting information that is available regarding so much of our food supply, and offers clear, sane guidance that will be a benefit to anyone who seeks it.

This book has a split personality ...
This is really two books that would have been better separated. The author takes us through a supermarket, showing us what to look for on the shelves and what various labeling means. Much of this information is very interesting (she has one of the clearest explanations of what a calorie is that I've ever read; she explains how mercury in fish becomes so toxic to humans). Unfortunately, even though the book is only two years old time has not been kind in other areas. She advises us that after going through a processing plant she has fewer concerns about pre-packaged salads and vegetables (oops!) and she still subscribes to the mostly-debunked link between dietary fat and heart disease (recommending nonfat milk [shudder]).

However, commingled with the useful information are rants about how politics have corrupted our food supply. Again, some of this is very interesting (for instance, due to the efforts of the sugar trade association, in the U.S. getting 25% of our calories from added sugars is considered okay; most other countries cap it at 10%). However, this information isn't helpful as you're wandering the supermarket; it belongs in a separate book and in fact can be found in her book Food Politics. That's where it should be, and removing this would have made the book a much more manageable length.

A must have for your nutritional library
At last, an easy to read, comprehensive book that explains the ins and outs of the food industry. The author delivers the information without any kind of prejudice, just facts. Food is big business, and your health is not a priority to these companies; they vie for premium shelf space to appeal to you and your children, are allowed to misrepresent nutritional value in their products in the hopes of fooling you into buying it, and answers all those little questions that go around in your mind as you shop, wondering what's healthy and what's not. This book is for everyone who cares about what goes into their bodies , and having read it, you can enter any grocery store with confidence and know exactly what to buy and what to avoid.