Nestle, Marion 1936-

PERSONAL:

Born 1936; children: Charles, Rebecca. Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1959, Ph.D., 1968, M.P.H., 1986.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, New York University, 35 W. 4th St., 12th Fl., New York, NY 10012-1172. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Nutritionist, molecular biologist, educator, and writer. Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, lecturer in biology, 1971-73, assistant professor of biology, 1974-76; University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, lecturer in biochemistry and biophysics, 1976-84, associate dean, school of medicine, human biology programs administrative director, medical scientist training program, 1976-86, lecturer in medicine, 1979-84, acting director, medical scientist training program 1983-84, lecturer in family and community medicine, 1984-85, director, John Tung/American Cancer Society clinical nutrition education center, 1984-86, adjunct associate professor, family and community medicine, 1985-86, associated faculty, Institute for Health Policy Studies and Institute for Aging Health Policy, 1983-86; Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC, staff director for nutrition policy, senior nutrition policy advisor, managing editor, Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health (1988), 1986-88; New York University, New York, NY, School of Education, professor and chair, nutrition and food studies, 1998-2003, professor and director of Public Health Initiatives, 2003-04; Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, c. 2004—, honorary professor in the Department of Sociology, 2006. Visiting professorships include Cornell University, College of Agriculture, Division of Nutritional Sciences, 2006; University of California, Berkeley, Schools of Public Policy, Public Health, and Journalism, 2006; and University of California Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, 2007. Also a member of numerous federal, state, city, professional, community, editorial, and advisory committees and boards, including the FDA Science Advisory Board, 1998-2001; Research!America National Advisory Committee on Prevention Research, 2000—; Harvard Business School, Private and Public, Scientific, Academic and Consumer Food Policy Committee, 1995—; Journal of Public Health Policy, 1999—; Nutrition Week, 2001—; Chez Panisse Foundation advisory board, 2005; Slow Food, USA, advisory board, 2005, and Pew Commission on Industrial Animal Production and Public Health, 2006.

MEMBER:

American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Public Health Association, American Society for Clinical Nutrition, American Society for Nutrition Science, Association for the Study of Food and Society, Center for Science in the Public Interest, International Association of Culinary Professionals, James Beard Foundation, Les Dames d'Escoffier, National Association for Public Health Policy, Public Health Association of New York City, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Recipient of numerous awards, honors, and appointments, including American Public Health Association, Food and Nutrition Section Award, 1994, for Excellence in Dietary Guidance; Eating Well magazine, Nutrition Educator of the Year, 1997; Roundtable for Women in Food Service, Pacesetter Award, 1999, for Educator of the Year; James Beard Foundation, Literary Award, 2003, for Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health; Who's Who in Food and Beverage in America, Association of American Publisher's Award for Food Politics (best public health book); and World Hunger Year Harry Chapin Book Award, for Food Politics; UCLA Center for Society, the Individual, and Genetics distinguished fellow, 2004; Daniel E. Griffiths Research Award, New York University, 2004; Alumna of the Year, University of California Berkeley, School of Public Health, 2004; David P. Rall Award for Advocacy in Public Health, American Public Health Association, 2004; American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow, 2005; Health Quality Award, national Committee for Quality Assurance, 2005; American Society for Nutritional Sciences fellow, 2005; American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow, California Public Health Association, 2006.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Nutrition in Clinical Practice, Jones Medical Publications (Greenbrae, CA), 1985.

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2002.

Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2003.

What to Eat, North Point Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of articles to journals and periodicals, including American Journal of Public Health, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, and Muscle & Fitness/Hers. Contributor to books, including Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal, and Policy Issues in Biotechnology, edited by T.J. Murray and M.J. Mehlman, John Wiley & Sons (New York, NY), 2000, and The Cambridge World History of Food and Nutrition, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

Marion Nestle is a food and nutrition expert. As editor of the U.S. government's Surgeon General's Report on Diet and Health, she is well aware of the politics—governmental and big business—involved in food production and its not-so-safe marketing to the American consumer. Her extensive experience as an academic nutritionist, membership on a plethora of governmental and secular boards associated with the food and nutrition industry, and reviewer of articles for research and medical journals focusing on that subject, all support her credentials as author of numerous articles and her three books.

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health was described by David Maloof in Natural Health as a "devastating analysis" of the food industry in America. A reviewer for Social Policy called it a "carefully considered, calmly stated, devastating criticism of the nation's food industry and its efforts to get people to eat excessive amounts of unhealthy food." When asked by Mary Duenwald in an interview for the New York Times exactly how the food industry promotes overeating, Nestle replied: "Just by promoting eating. By spending 10 billion dollars a year in direct media advertising. That is so much more than is spent on health and nutrition education, you can't even put them in the same stratosphere."

In her book, Nestle compares America's food industry to the tobacco industry, accusing food companies of misleading consumers; obstructing regulations that would help people lead healthier lives; and marketing unhealthy food such as Coca Cola to schoolchildren. She also noted in her interview with Duenwald that the reason the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health was never updated as planned is because it is "too controversial. If you tell people what to eat, you have to tell them to eat less of what? The sugar industry people were in our office all the time. They most emphatically did not want us to say eat less sugar. The meat industry was really worried, since fat was a big issue, and meat is where the saturated fat is." She indicates in her book that she was told "point blank" that the report could not suggest people eat less meat, less sugar—or any other food. If it did, big business could have pulled a financial plug that would sink the entire governmental study.

Yet Nestle points out that good nutritional advice has remained constant for more than fifty years: Simply put, eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and grains. Regardless, consumers seem to grow more confused by the day about what constitutes a healthy diet. She states that food industry lobbyists invested more than 52 million dollars in 1998 alone, and cited specific instances where government was "persuaded" to abandon straight talk and use increasingly sophisticated language when advising consumers. A reviewer of her book noted in the Economist: "A revised version of Dietary Goals, for example, struck out its initial recommendation to ‘decrease consumption of meat’ and replaced it with the harder-to-follow suggestion that Americans should ‘choose meats, poultry, and fish which will reduce saturated fat intake.’"

Nestle also attacks the food industry for spiking highly processed, nutritionally empty foods, like many breakfast cereals, with supplements. The manufacturers can then market what is really junk food with misleading claims of health benefits. Conversely, wholesome foods are infused with sugars, salts, and oils to make them tastier while making them a serious health risk. The reason for such highly processed food, she states, is profit. Food companies can charge much higher prices for processed food. In her interview with Duenwald, she gave an example: "Potatoes are cheap. Potato chips aren't." Nestle added: "The objective is to process foods as much as possible. But many of these highly processed foods are junk foods—relatively high in calories and low in nutrients."

Stephen H. Webb commented for the Christian Century: "As long as we want more than carrot sticks, brown rice, and tofu, according to Marion Nestle's new book, food companies will continue to be as deceptive as big tobacco and as cozy with the government as the military industry. Food does not really kill, then. Only people do—the people who trade on confusion and affluence to market food that tastes so good people will risk their health for it."

Webb stated, however, that "Nestle never quite answers the question of how taste buds could be so vulnerable to systematic manipulation and deception." He declared what is missing is an understanding of the basic human tendency toward gluttony and the symbolic role of certain foods in our society. As an example, he noted that most people believe a meal without meat is just not a meal. In contrast, he observed that people in poorer countries whose diets consist primarily of vegetables and grains suffer far less from "diseases that plague affluent Americans." Webb also commented: "As Nestle points out, most of us think that we choose food based on taste, cost and convenience; we resist thinking of ourselves as easy targets of marketing strategies. Consequently, we overestimate our own rationality and underestimate the power of advertising. Just try taking some kids to a McDonald's and forcing them to order salad. We are much less in control of our lives than we would like to think."

Stephen Clapp closed his review of the book for Food Chemical News by commenting: "Regardless of who is to blame for the obesity epidemic, Nestle has laid down a challenge that won't easily go away. It will be interesting to see how the food industry responds."

Nestle's third book, Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism, poses the question "who decides when food is safe?" Conservatively, more than seventy-six million cases of food poisoning occur in this nation every year, not just from food prepared at restaurants, but also food purchased at supermarkets. In his review of the book for the Washington Monthly, Chris Mooney pointed out that Nestle believes food safety is not just a matter of science but a matter of politics. "In most respects, the campaign to bring safety to food production is a classic Washington tale, with big corporations energetically lobbying Congress, generating pseudo-science, gaming the regulatory process, and subverting the public good to preserve profits," commented Mooney.

In her book What to Eat, Nestle provides an aisle-by-aisle guide to buying food in a the supermarket. The author writes about the marketing strategies that lead consumers to buy food semi-consciously and then delves into how to shop for healthy foods in the various sections of the supermarket—from produce and diary to packaged foods and bottled water. In the process she discusses various issues such as additives and nutrition and how food production impacts the environment. Nestle also reasserts eating essential guidelines and rules that have proven over many years of study to be healthy, including consuming fewer calories, exercising more, and eating more fruits and vegetables and less unhealthy food such as candy and other junk food. Susan Male Smith, writing in Environmental Nutrition, noted that the author provides "insider information on corporate motivation, labeling secrets and other culinary controversies." In his review in Booklist, Mark Knoblauch wrote that the author "does present very helpful shopping guidelines for consumers determined to be vigilant about their food." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that the author's "prose is informative and entertaining" and noted "her intelligent and reassuring approach." Dorothy Kalins, writing in the New York Times Book Review, commented that Nestle "shoots straight though food industry hype," adding: "She pulls no punches."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 2006, Mark Knoblauch, review of What to Eat, p. 16.

Business Week, May 22, 2006, "‘The Rules’ For Eating Smarter," interview with author, p. 92.

Christian Century, April 10, 2002, Stephen H. Webb, review of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, p. 35.

Chronicle of Higher Education, October 13, 2006, Amy Bentley, review of What to Eat.

Economist, May 11, 2002, "Lean on Me; America's Food Industry," review of Food Politics.

Environmental Nutrition, June, 2006, Susan Male Smith, review of What to Eat, p. 2.

Food Chemical News, May 20, 2002, Stephen Clapp, "Food Politics Blames Industry for Obesity Epidemic," p. 18, and Stephen Clapp, "Food Politics Raises Provocative Questions," interview with Marion Nestle, p. 19.

Fortune, February 18, 2002, Julie Creswell, "Chewing Out the Food Industry," interview with Marion Nestle, p. 36.

Gourmet Retailer, February, 2006, James Mellgren, review of What to Eat, p. 106.

Lancet, May 18, 2002, Kathleen Nelson, "Food in the USA: Something to Chew Over," review of Food Politics, p. 1785.

Library Journal, March 1, 2006, Margaret K. Norden, review of What to Eat, p. 111.

Nation, May 6, 2002, Ian Williams, "Big Food's Real Appetites," review of Food Politics, p. 37.

Natural Health, July, 2002, David Maloof, review of Food Politics, p. 86.

New York Times, February 19, 2002, Mary Duenwald, "An ‘Eat More’ Message for a Fattened America," interview with Marion Nestle, p. 66.

New York Times Book Review, May 28, 2006, Dorothy Kalins, review of What to Eat, p. 21.

O, the Oprah Magazine, April, 2006, Patricia Volk, "My Dinner with Marion," p. 159.

People, May 22, 2006, Ericka Souter, "Eat, Drink & Be Wary," interview with author, p. 155.

Progressive Grocer, June 1, 2006, Jenny McTaggart "Healthy Skepticism," interview with author, p. 32.

Publishers Weekly, March 13, 2006, review of What to Eat, p. 59.

San Francisco Chronicle, March 15, 2006, Carol Ness, "Down to a Science," profile of author and review of What to Eat.

Saturday Evening Post, March-April, 2006, review of What to Eat, and "A Food Shopping Guide," brief discussion of What to Eat, p. 20.

Science News, May 13, 2006, review of What to Eat, p. 303.

Social Policy, summer, 2002, review of Food Politics, p. 66.

Time, June 12, 2006, Claudia Wallis, "Decoding the Grocery Store," interview with author, p. 63.

World Watch, September-October, 2002, Erik Assadourian, "Hunger for Profit," review of Food Politics, p. 34.

ONLINE

Atlantic,http://www.theatlantic.com/ (June 25, 2002), Ben Geman, review of Food Politics.

Marion Nestle Home Page,http://www.foodpolitics.com (February 9, 2007).

New York University Web site,http://www.nyu.edu/ (April 7, 2003), biography and full curriculum vitae of author.

PBS Frontline Web site,http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ (February 9, 2007), "Interview Marion Nestle."

UC Berkeley News Web site,http://www.berkeley.edu/news/ (April 13, 2006), Wendy Edelstein "Attention, Shoppers: Avoid the Center Aisles," profile of author and What to Eat.

USA Today,http://www.usatoday.com/ (April 3, 2003), Elizabeth Weise, review of Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism.

Washington Monthly,http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ (February 9, 2007), Chris Mooney, "Food Fight," review of Safe Food.