Language: English
ISBN10: 0865477043
Pages: 624
ISBN13: 9780865477049
How do we decide what foods to eat? In recent
years, this simple question has become complicated beyond belief—as
supermarkets have grown to warehouse size, and as the old advice to eat foods
from four food groups has been overrun by questions about organic foods,
hormones, pesticides, carbohydrates, trans fats, omega-3s, supplements, health
claims, extreme diets, and, above all, obesity.
Fortunately, Marion Nestle is here to tell us
what’s what—to give us the facts we need to make sensible choices from the
bewildering array of foods available to us. With What to Eat, this renowned
nutritionist takes us on a guided tour of the supermarket, explaining the
issues with verve and wit as well as a scientist’s expertise and a food lover’s
experience.
Today’s supermarket is ground zero for the food
industry, a place where the giants of agribusiness compete for sales with
profits—not nutrition or health—in mind. Nestle walks us through the
supermarket, section by section: produce, dairy, meat, fish, packaged foods,
breads, juices, bottled waters, and more. Along
the way, she untangles the issues, decodes the
labels, clarifies the health claims, and debunks the sales hype. She tells us
how to make sensible choices based on freshness, taste, nutrition, health,
effects on the environment, and, of course, price. With Nestle as our guide, we
learn what it takes to make wise food choices
and are inspired to act with confidence on that
knowledge.
What to Eat is the guide to healthy eating today:
comprehensive, provocative, revealing, rich in common sense, informative, and a
pleasure to read.
Marion Nestle received a Lifetime Achievement
Award from the James Beard Foundation—the food world's highest honor—as well as
the foundation's book prize. She is the author of Food Politics and Safe Food,
and was featured in the documentary Super Size Me. A native of New York, she
raised her family in California and now lives in Greenwich Village, where she
teaches at New York University.
How should you decide what foods to eat? As supermarkets
have grown to warehouse size, this simple question has become complicated
beyond belief. Fortunately, Marion Nestle—renowned for her sage advice on food
and nutrition—is here to cut through the confusion and lay out what you need to
know. In What to Eat, she takes us on a guided tour of the American supermarket
and shows us exactly how to feed ourselves and our families wisely and well.
With sharp humor, expertise, and a food-lover's
delight, Nestle guides us through the supermarket sections—produce, dairy,
meat, fish, breads, and juices, and then to the "center aisles,"
where big profits are made. Along the way, she reveals the big food companies'
marketing practices, explains complex labels in clear language, and tells us
what we need to know about:
· wild and farm-raised
· frozen and fresh
· organic, natural, and conventional
· carbs, omega-3s, and trans fats
· pesticides and the environment
· portion size, labeling, and nutrition claims
· supplements, additives, and preservatives
· food safety
"The industry wants you to believe there are
no good foods or bad foods. Well, that's not true. And I can't think of anyone
who knows the difference better than Marion Nestle."—Eric Schlosser,
author of Fast Food Nation
"Not only is What to Eat the most
comprehensive guide to the political and nutritional choices we make shopping
for food, but it's also full of up-to-date research on health."—Susan
Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"With this comprehensive guide, Nestle, a
nutritionist, makes the weekly trip to the grocery less daunting and a healthy
diet more attainable."—Science News
"Part muckraking journalism, part reference
book and part consumer guide, What to Eat is organized in the manner suggested
by the subtitle: as a walk down each grocery store aisle with a companionable
Ph. D. researcher as the guide. It is a simple, yet effective, concept for
organizing what otherwise could have become a mind-numbing amount of
information."—Steve Weinberg, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"When it comes to the increasingly
treacherous landscape of the American supermarket, with its marketing hype and
competing health claims, Marion Nestle is an absolutely indispensable guide:
knowledgeable, eminently sane—and wonderful company, too.”—Michael Pollan,
author of The Botany of Desire
"The industry wants you to believe there are
no good foods or bad foods. Well, that's not true. And I can't think of anyone
who knows the difference better than Marion Nestle."—Eric Schlosser,
author of Fast Food Nation
"According to nutritionist Nestle, 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."
