What to Eat
What to Eat
How we choose which foods to eat is growing more complicated by the day, and the straightforward, practical approach of What to Eat has been praised as welcome relief. As Nestle takes us through each supermarket section—produce, dairy, meat, fish—she explains the issues, cutting through foodie jargon and complicated nutrition labels, and debunking the misleading health claims made by big food companies. With Nestle as our guide, we are shown how to make wise food choices—and are inspired to eat sensibly and nutritiously.
Now in paperback, What to Eat is already a classic—“the perfect guidebook to help navigate through the confusion of which foods are good for us” (USA Today).
Product Details
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
How do we choose what to eat? Buffeted by health claims--should we, for example, restrict our intake of carbs or fats or both? Is organic food better for us?--we become confused and tune out. In supermarkets we buy semi-consciously, unaware that our choices are carefully orchestrated by sophisticated marketing strategies concerned only with the bottom line. That we should confront such persuasion is the major point made by nutritionist-consumer advocate Marion Nestle in her extraordinary What to Eat, an aisle-by-aisle guide to supermarket buying and thus an anatomy of American food business. "The way food is situated in today's society discourages healthful food choices," Nestle tells us, a fact that finds literal representation in our supermarkets, where food placement--dependant on "slotting fees," guaranteed advertising and other incentives--determines every purchase we make.
Nestle walks readers through every supermarket section--produce, meat, fish, dairy, packaged foods, bottled waters, and more--decoding labels and clarifying nutritional and other claims (in supermarket-speak, for example, "fresh" means most likely to spoil first, not recently picked or prepared), and in so doing explores issues like the effects of food production on our environment, the way pricing works, and additives and their effect on nutrition.
What Nestle reveals is both discouraging and empowering. Through ubiquitous advertising, almost universal food availability, the growth of portion size, and unchecked marketing to kids, we’re encouraged to eat more than we need, with consequent negative impact on our health. Knowledge is indeed power, and Nestle's lively, witty, and thoroughly enlightening book--the work, readers quickly see, of a food lover intent on increasing sensual satisfaction at table as well as promoting health--will help its readers become completely cognizant about food shopping. It's a must for anyone who eats and buys food and wants to do both better. --Arthur Boehm
From Publishers Weekly
According to nutritionist Nestle (Food Politics), 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. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Nutritionist Nestle's newest volume aims to help the American consumer determine what best to eat to improve or to maintain good health. Pursuing what she hopes is a unique and beneficial approach, she surveys a supermarket on a food-by-food basis, noting for each category what nutritional benefits are claimed and what really are the advantages and dangers in consuming any grocery offering. She documents how food industry concerns have perverted nutritional and origin labeling, dismayed that economics has once more trumped open information. She assesses the roles of trans-fats in processed food, methylmercury in fish, calcium in dairy products, salmonella in fresh eggs, sugar in cereals, and genetic modification. Nestle is particularly concerned that consumers understand all the implications, good and bad, of the perennially contentious "organic" label. Although the honest, prudent scientist in Nestle precludes her providing glib prescriptions or half-true advice on eating, she does present very helpful shopping guidelines for consumers determined to be vigilant about their food. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Customer Reviews
Nourishing, and troubling.
This is the most credible, impressive book I've read on food. Her advice is actually quite traditional (eat fewer calories, exercise more, watch portion size and saturated fats, read the friggin' ingredient labels), and yet the book feels like a revolution, perhaps due in part to her comprehensiveness in weighing the pros and cons of various foods from multiple angles and her scandalous revelations of the regulatory tugs-of-war. And yet... as I read further and further, I noticed increasingly that the consumer's best response to a vast variety of food conundrums was "write your congressman." Sure, she's right, I guess--much of what we consume is what it is because politicians and regulators make/permit it to be so.
And yet. With all the substantial problems in the world right now, it is daunting for a consumer to invest in a movement that's increasingly not "the big problem." We've seen a positive revolution in food in the past generation. But as we scrimp and save, the Wal-Mart "cheaper is better" food ethic may trump the recent progress of the artisan food producers and purveyors.
All Purpose Guide
This is a good all purpose guide to nutrition, including and especially safety concerns. It doesn't just stop with "carrots are a good source of vitamin A, etc" but it goes on to address issues such as how food is processed, handled, and packaged, and how these considerations affect the actual desirabilty of eating those foods. I'd buy it in ADDITION to other nutrition books, not as a standalone.
Taking it all into account.
Nestle's book takes on a different view than your average foodie book promoting organic and local foods. She factors in "animal suffering and economic degradation" (Dorothy Kalins, NYTimes Sunday Book Review "Eat Your Vegetables May 28, 2006). I agree with Nestle that you really do vote with your shopping basket. What you buy at the store is what you support in our economy. This is a really eye-opening account of food in America today.
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