Food Politics : How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health

Rating:
Summary: Bashing Food Myths!!!
Review: "Food Politics" is a really enlightening and educational read for anyone who eats! I was recommended this book by my professor who I became a teaching assistant to (the class is Nutrition in Medicine). Being a foodie who believes in fresh ingredients and minimal processing, this book not only reiterates what I know (and believe), it also presents new information about the competitive food industry. During the time I read the book, I began realizing the food industry's actions on my daily experience, such as grocery shopping. I also realized that they have succeeded brainwashing the "Variety is good for the diet" motto not only to me but also my loved ones.

I got pretty disillusioned with both the government and the food industry after reading this. Not that I've never known about Senate/Congress lobbyists and corruption, it's just that I never realized the extent that it happens! Nevertheless, "Food Politics" is a beneficial read for anyone interested in finding out more about the industry.

Rating:
Summary: The other side of the food inustry...
Review: A good read! All you thought you knew about the food industry but didn't want to believe. It contains very apparent, detailed accounts of how big money food conglomerates steer legislation and deregulation of the food industry and marketplace to sell you processed junk in healthy packages. If you believe the food industry is researching products in your best interest, to make food safer and genuinely more nutritious, read this book! The book, along with a few others pertaining to similar topics, restores some bit of hope that there are indeed a few people out there that value good food and nutrition, and are wise to the fact that good nutrition doesn't come in glossy cellophane packages stamped with health claims touting unbelievable 'magic bullet' statements targeted to those with limited understanding of nutrition and health.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, the real story
Review: At last consumers have a hope of understanding the industry and government machinations that are behind the manipulation of food choices and policies in the US. Nutritionists and dietitians should regard this as required reading if they care about a true understanding of the context in which they practice their professions. But the clarity of the prose here means that everyone, not just food professionals, can -- and should -- read this book. Marion Nestle has done the US public a real service with this book; one wishes she would take on the pharmaceutical industry next.

Rating:
Summary: I don't think most of these reviewers read this book
Review: DO any of these authors live in California? Is all this going on in some McDonalds heavy midwestern back water? B/C this is NOT my reality! Regardless of the hour, I cannot turn on the news w/out hearing alarmist "statistics" about how unforgivably fat Americans are! This is all ofcourse intercut w/ads for designer drugs to "control" fat through the wonder of outputting fatty oily stools. (OF course I find the almost ethereally uplifting and lengthy ads about why putting your 4 yr. old on ritalin much more disturbing, causing me to wish there was some way I could transport my wickedly fat @$$ back to what used to be planet earth. I hope this anorexic thinking author atleast reserves a fraction of his/her consternation for the diet industry-which it has been proven (by actually telling peole what these authors recommend "eat less-move more," cut fat out completely with fake foods-fill up on those politically correct eath sustaining carbs. Because when it really comes down to it who cares about your health-we only care about how you look!) has in the long run made people morbidly obese diabetics uncontrollably obsessed with food. Sort of like the same way making certain drugs illegal fuels crime. But hey the solution really is encouraging (Yes actually encouraging!) insurance companies to discriminate against people on the basis of weight and publicly humiliate and abuse their children at school. (I guess that isn't happening enough already!) It's only a matter of time before smoking, bulimia and anorexia are brought back and lauded for their appetite supressing affects. Call me crazy, but I find the pressure of a soda much less irresistable than the pressure to look like I just walked out of a prison labor camp.

Rating:
Summary: BRING BACK ANOREXIA!
Review: DO any of these authors live in California? Is all this going on in some McDonalds heavy midwestern back water? B/C this is NOT my reality! Regardless of the hour, I cannot turn on the news w/out hearing alarmist "statistics" about how unforgivably fat Americans are! This is all ofcourse intercut w/ads for designer drugs to "control" fat through the wonder of outputting fatty oily stools. (OF course I find the almost ethereally uplifting and lengthy ads about why putting your 4 yr. old on ritalin much more disturbing, causing me to wish there was some way I could transport my wickedly fat @$$ back to what used to be planet earth. I hope this anorexic thinking author atleast reserves a fraction of his/her consternation for the diet industry-which it has been proven (by actually telling peole what these authors recommend "eat less-move more," cut fat out completely with fake foods-fill up on those politically correct eath sustaining carbs. Because when it really comes down to it who cares about your health-we only care about how you look!) has in the long run made people morbidly obese diabetics uncontrollably obsessed with food. Sort of like the same way making certain drugs illegal fuels crime. But hey the solution really is encouraging (Yes actually encouraging!) insurance companies to discriminate against people on the basis of weight and publicly humiliate and abuse their children at school. (I guess that isn't happening enough already!) It's only a matter of time before smoking, bulimia and anorexia are brought back and lauded for their appetite supressing affects. Call me crazy, but I find the pressure of a soda much less irresistable than the pressure to look like I just walked out of a prison labor camp.

Rating:
Summary: If you liked Fast Food Nation
Review: Eric Schlosser writes about FOOD POLITICS, "If you eat, you should read this book." But while Schlosser revealed to a mass public the disturbing business of fast food, Marion Nestle takes on most of the food industry, and not without consequences (you can view a letter she received from a lawyer representing the sugar industry on the website for this book).

She argues that basic nutrition science is simple. Yet there is mass confusion about what to eat and what effects foods have. And the reason for all of this misinformation is that it benefits food producers to have an innocent flock of customers who are left uncertain of how to judge what is healthy from what is not. She clearly explains what means the food industry uses to influence policies to their benefit, often at the expense of public health. And she gives detailed examples that illustrate the extent to which some companies and industries go to sell their products.

While her suggestions for reform may be somewhat wanting, her descriptions of how decisions about food get made on political levels is masterfully researched and she is always respectful of science. While those people with vested interests in certain industries may label her a communist, she is merely critiquing a history of policies and marketing strategies that have, to be sure, provided us with an abundant food supply, but have also led to increased obesity and high rates of chronic diseases.

Rating:
Summary: Read this Book, Then...
Review: FIGHT FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Professor Ignacio Chapela courageously spoke out
against the UC $25 million research agreement with
the biotechnology giant Novartis. He published an
article demonstrating that native corn in Mexico had
been contaminated by genetically engineered corn.
Being a prominent critic of the university's ties to
the biotech industry, Dr. Chapela had his tenure
denied despite overwhelming support by his peers at UC
Berkeley and experts around the world.

The implications that these actions have on academic
freedom are frightening. They threaten scientists in
the future from working to seek truth in different
forums without undue influence. Scientists will no
longer be able to ask questions that might seem
uncomfortable even for the university to pose, such as
those in pursuit of precautionary science or in
opposition to corporate control over the university
research agenda.

You can get involved:
1. Call, email or write the UC Berkeley Chancellor
Birgeneau and the Academic Senate.
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Snail Mail: Office of the Chancellor, 200 California
Hall # 1500, Berkeley, California, 94720-1500
(Academic Senate = PHONE: [phone]; FAX:
510-642-8920; E-MAIL: [e-mail]

2. Visit www.tenurejustice.org or write
[e-mail]




Rating:
Summary: The PR campaign against this book has already begun
Review: For what it's worth, potential readers of Nestle's book should note that the first three "reader reviews" of this book are pretty obviously cranked out by some food industry PR campaign. To begin with, they were all submitted on the same date, February 22 -- "reader reviews" of a book that isn't even scheduled to go on sale until March 4! For another thing, they all hit on the same food industry "message points": that critics are "nagging nannies" whipping up "hysteria" on behalf of "greedy trial lawyers," etc. February 22 is also the date that noted industry flack Steven Milloy of the "Junk Science Home Page" (...) wrote a review trashing Nestle's book. Milloy is a former tobacco lobbyist and front man for a group created by Philip Morris, which has been diversifying its tobacco holdings in recent years by buying up companies that make many of the fatty, sugar-laden foods that Nestle is warning about. (...)

I haven't even had a chance yet to read Nestle's book myself, but it irritates me to see the food industry's PR machine spew out the usual (...) every time someone writes something they don't like. If they hate her this much, it's probably a pretty good book.

Rating:
Summary: Why right libertarian economics will never work.
Review: Government in bed with the industry. Government wins through private sector employment, companies win by selling you dirt cheap harmful garbage. You lose.

I'd take the first 3 reviews submitted with a grain of salt.

Rating:
Summary: Food Politics Exposes the Hegemony of the Food Industry
Review: I loved the exposure of the total domination of the food industry. All of us (at least in Western Culture) are subjected to a set of competing and paradoxical messages such as eat more and weigh less. Evey newspaper, television ad, and magazine model demand that we be thin yet at the same time encourage us to eat more food and make less healthy choices. I believe the food industry and the diet industry go hand in hand. One could not exist without the other. Food Politics is a wonderful book that supports my own research in my book Fat Like Us. I encourage everyone to read it.