Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health (the department she chaired from 1988-2003) and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (2002, paperback 2003) and Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism (2003, paperback 2004), both from University of California Press. Her book, What to Eat, published by North Point Press/ Farrar, Straus & Giroux (2006, paperback 2007), was named as one of Amazon.Com’s top ten books of 2006 (Health, Mind, and Body) , and a “Must Read” by Eating Well magazine. Her most recent book is Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine, published by University of California Press in 2008. Her forthcoming book, co-authored with Malden Nesheim, is Feed Your Pet Right (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, May 2010).
Bacterial contamination of meat is an ongoing problem and everyone wishes for an easy fix--one that does not require meat producers and packers to prevent contamination.Irradiation works, but raises feasibility and other concerns.How about electrocution?Food Production Daily reports that hitting meat with electrical current reduces toxic E. coli O157:H7 on meat surfaces by 2 log units.The research report says researchers...
I was intrigued by the new study from the Pennington Research Center concluding that weight gain depends on calories, not how much protein you eat.The idea that the protein, fat, or carbohydrate content of your diet matters more to weight than how many calories you eat persists despite much evidence to the contrary.This study did something impressive. It measured what...
Perhaps in response to Consumer Reports' charges that levels of arsenic in children's juices are so high that more restrictive standards would be healthier (see previous post), the FDA has done its own tests, updated its arsenic home page, and strengthened its Q and A on arsenic.The Q and A includes these questions:Is the arsenic in apple juice predominantly organic...
I worry a lot about the ability of the FDA to set limits on the excess marketing practices of food companies. The latest cause for worry is the seemingly trivial fuss over what to call High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).HFCS is not especially high in fructose (its fructose content is about the same as that of table sugar) but the...
I haven't said anything about the E. coli 0104 crisis in Germany up to now because I've been waiting for the evidence. Without evidence, the source of the outbreak remains uncertain.Sunday, the minister of agriculture (in Lower Saxony) announced that sprouts are the cause. But are they?What is known without question is that the outbreak is deadly serious. Bill Marler...
I've been asked repeatedly this week to comment on the huge press outcry about a study that links diet sodas to an increased risk of stroke and heart disease.I have not seen the study and neither has anyone else. It is not yet published.It was presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2011. The American Heart Association has...
I have now had time to look at the full report of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines-all 95 pages of what they are calling "the policy document."Oh no! What happened to the Selected Messages for Consumers that I posted yesterday? "Enjoy your food" is not in it and neither are any of the other clear, straightforward messages. This is a big...
Editor's note: If you had a magic wand, how would you conjure up ways to make the food supply safe? We asked several people to consider the possibilities. Here is another response, from author and professor Marion Nestle, who writes about food issues on her blog Food Politics.Bill Marler, the food safety lawyer in Seattle, is asking for responses to...
I listened in on Monday's White House conference call announcing that President Obama would sign the Food Safety Modernization Act.Speakers said the new bill will give the FDA the tools and authority it needs to help prevent the CDC's new estimates of the annual burden of foodborne illness: 48 million cases, 180,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths.But they barely mentioned the...
Food companies insist that they can make health claims for their products, whether backed by science or not, because commercial speech is protected by the First Amendment.The First Amendment, in case you have forgotten, says:Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;...
I had a good laugh when Dick Jackson, who chairs the Environmental Health Sciences department at UCLA's School of Public Health, forwarded this article: "McDonald's and PepsiCo to help write UK health policy."I assumed this was another priceless piece from The Onion, whose recent article on the effects of the U.S. Farm Bill on soybean production is equally hilarious.But no...
In an online press release last week, the Grocery Manufacturing Association (GMA) and Food Marketing Institute (FMI) announced a new labeling initiative for their member companies:America's leading food and beverage manufacturers and retailers joined forces today in the fight against obesity and announced their commitment to develop a new front-of-package nutrition labeling system. The unprecedented consumer initiative will make it...
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its first Front-of-Package (FOP) labeling report Oct. 13. Phase I is a tough, detailed examination of about 20 of the existing FOP schemes along with some recommendations about what such schemes ought to do.FOP labels are those little spots, check marks, and tokens that are all over food packages these days and that are supposed...
I received a couple of requests to define "public health" last week from readers [of Food Politics] Anthro and MA. As MA puts it,"Maybe...we need a definition of "public health." I view my health as a private matter, my food choices as a private matter, and an expression of my freedom. To me, public health is not an individual concern,...
Yesterday's New York Times has an op-ed, "Crying over raw milk", about the political fights over raw milk in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin legislature has introduced a bill allowing dairy farmers to sell raw milk directly to consumers. The conventional dairy industry is not happy about that.The author of the piece, Michael Feldman, is dubious about the purported health benefits of...
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New York University
