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PRAISE FOR MARION NESTLE’S FOOD POLITICS
“Hard-hitting, revealing. . . . Challenges us to consider the political envi-
ronment in which the science of food and nutrition exists.”
—New England Journal of Medicine
“Examines . . . the industry’s manipulation of America’s eating habits
while enumerating many conflicts of interest among nutritional author-
ities. . . . A telling book. . . . It’s hard to argue with Dr. Nestle’s point
that food is above all political.”
—The New York Times
“Fascinating . . . we learn how powerful, intrusive, influential, and inva-
sive big industry is and how alert we must constantly be to prevent it from
influencing not only our own personal nutritional choices, but those of
our government agencies.”
—Julia Child
“Nestle demonstrates how lobbying, public relations, political maneuver-
ing, and advertising by the food industry work against public health
goals and have helped create a population that’s eating itself sick. Most
important, she makes clear the need for better nutritional education
among consumers.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Food Politics is a book that deserves to change national and interna-
tional attitudes, as Carson’s Silent Springdid in the 1960s.”
—American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
“A provocative and highly readable book arguing that America’s agri-
business lobby has stifled the government’s regulatory power, helped
create a seasonless and regionless diet, and hampered the government’s
ability to offer sound, scientific nutritional advice.”
—Economist
“In her widely acclaimed book, Nestle explains why the wealthiest nation
in the world is eating itself to death. Based on meticulous research, Nes-
tle’s book exposes how the naked self-interest of the American corpo-
rate food industry compromises nutrition policy, as well as our govern-
ment’s regulation of food safety.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“If it hasn’t yet occurred to you that there are striking and ominous par-
allels between the tobacco and food industries—Big Tobacco, meet Big
Fat—it might be time to pick up a copy of Food Politics.”
— San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Nestle’s well-documented study of the ways in which big business influ-
ences not only our own food choices but also government nutrition poli-
cies will terrify you.”
—Natural Health
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food
POLITICS
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CALIFORNIA STUDIES IN FOOD AND CULTURE
Darra Goldstein, Editor
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MARION NESTLE
food
POLITICS
HOW THE FOOD INDUSTRY
INFLUENCES NUTRITION AND HEALTH
RReevviisseedd aanndd EExxppaannddeedd ETdeinttiohn Anniversary Edition
Foreword by Michael Pollan
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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University of California Press, one of the most distinguished
university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the
world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences,
and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press
Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals
and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2002, 2007, 2013 by The Regents of the University of California
First paperback printing 2003
ISBN 978-0-520-27596-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)
The Library of Congress has cataloged an earlier edition of this
book as follows:
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nestle, Marion.
Food politics: how the food industry influences nutrition and
health / Marion Nestle.
p. cm. — (California studies in food and culture; 3)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-520-22465-5 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Nutrition policy— United States. 2. Food— Marketing—
Moral and ethical aspects— United States. 3. Food industry
and trade— United States. I. Title. II. Series.
TX360.U6.N47 F47 2002
363.8'5'0973— dc21 2001027678
Manufactured in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally
responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has
printed this book on Rolland Enviro100, a 100% post-consumer
fiber paper that is FSC certified, deinked, processed chlorine-free,
and manufactured with renewable biogas energy. It is acid-free and
EcoLogo certified.
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CONTENTS
FPorerfeawceo rtdo bthye M 20ic0h7a eEld Piotilolann vviiii
PPrreeffaaccee ttoo tthhee TFiernstth E Adintinoinversary Edition xxiiii
PInrterfoadcue cttoio tnh:e First Edition xvii
ITnhter oFdouocdt iIonnd:u Tsthrey Faonodd “ IEnadt uMstoryre a”nd “Eat More” 11
PART ONEI
UNDERMINING DIETARY ADVICE 29
1. From “Eat More” to “Eat Less,” 1900–1990 31
2. Politics versus Science: Opposing the Food Pyramid, 1991–1992 51
3. “Deconstructing” Dietary Advice 67
PART TWOI
WORKING THE SYSTEM 93
4. Influencing Government: Food Lobbies and Lobbyists 95
5. Co-opting Nutrition Professionals 111
6. Winning Friends, Disarming Critics 137
7. Playing Hardball: Legal and Not 159
PART THREEI
EXPLOITING KIDS,
CORRUPTING SCHOOLS 173
8. Starting Early: Underage Consumers 175
9. Pushing Soft Drinks: “Pouring Rights” 197
PART FOURI
DEREGULATING DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS 219
10. Science versus Supplements: “A Gulf of Mutual
Incomprehension” 222
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11. Making Health Claims Legal: The Supplement Industry’s
War with the FDA 247
12. Deregulation and Its Consequences 272
PART FIVEI
INVENTING TECHNO-FOODS 295
13. Go Forth and Fortify 298
14. Beyond Fortification: Making Foods Functional 315
15. Selling the Ultimate Techno-Food: Olestra 338
Conclusion:
The Politics of Food Choice 358
Afterword:
FFoooodd PPoolliittiiccss:: FTievne YYeeaarrss LLaatteerr aanndd BBeeyyoonndd 337755
AAppppeennddiixx:: I ssues in Nutrition and Nutrition Research 395
INssouteess in Nutrition and Nutrition Research 440137
List of Tables 465
NLiostt eosf Figures 446257
LInidste xof Tables 446879
List of Figures 489
Index 491
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11. Making Health Claims Legal: The Supplement Industry’s
War with the FDA 247
Foreword
12. Deregulation and Its Consequences 272
PART FIVEI
INVENTING TECHNO-FOODS 295
13. Go Forth and Fortify 298
14. Beyond Fortification: Making Foods Functional 315
15. Selling the Ultimate Techno-Food: Olestra 338
Conclusion:
The Politics of Food Choice 358
Afterword:
Food Politics: Five Years Later and Beyond 375 On even the shortest shelf of books dedicated to explaining the
American food system, Marion Nestle’s Food Politics deserves a place of
Appendix: Issues in Nutrition and Nutrition Research 395 prominence. Whenever I teach a course on writing about food, I include
Notes 407 the book on the syllabus. On my own shelf, its white and fire-engine-red
List of Tables 465 spine stands next to Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, Wendell Berry’s
Unsettling of America, Harvey Levenstein’s Paradox of Plenty, and Rachel
List of Figures 467
Carson’s Silent Spring. Pretty good company for a book that, on its publi-
Index 469
cation in 2002, wasn’t even reviewed by the New York Times— an error in
judgment the paper has been trying to rectify ever since, chiefly by turning
to Marion Nestle for a salty quote anytime the food industry finds itself
ensnared in controversy. That seems to be happening on more or less a
daily basis, and Marion Nestle is herself one of the primary reasons why:
The book you hold is one of the founding documents of the movement to
reform the American food system.
I first read Food Politics while researching The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
The book helped me connect the dots between what I was observing in
the farm fields (vast monocultures of corn and soy, spreading like a
great lawn across the American Middle West) and what I was finding in
the supermarket (endless aisles of processed foods, most of them sport-
ing improbable health claims). In sentences that were almost breathtak-
ing in their bluntness, Nestle methodically laid out the business model
of the entire U.S. food industry. How? By proceeding like any good
investigative journalist: following the money, rather than listening to
the industry’s self-justifying rhetoric.
vii
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