Review by Choice Review
Nestle's well-researched book raises important points and delineates nutritional problems. However, Nestle tries but fails to present both sides of an issue equitably. Her most balanced portrayal concerns the dietary supplement issue. The look at political forces shaping important nutritional canon, e.g., the Food Guide Pyramid, is thought-provoking. Nestle (New York Univ.) offers a number of important suggestions to improve health by reducing portion size and overcoming exercise impediments. However, many solutions will not be practical, such as choosing only locally grown produce--a great suggestion for Florida, but it could result in scurvy in winter in the Dakotas. She proposes that educational materials have no industry logos and that there be no industry funded research. Fine in Utopia, but translated this means significantly less research and virtually no company-produced educational materials. Her accusations--that ties between nutrition scientists and organizations with industry foster a covert bias--in this reviewer's view is her "blind side." She wants the food industry to change, yet her anti-industry bias prevents her from acknowledging that industry alliances with those with knowledge is part of the answer. Thus, she outlines the problems but must do more to produce viable solutions for a healthier nation. ^BSumming Up: Optional. All levels. J. M. Jones College of St. Catherine
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
For decades, the American food industry struggled to provide enough sustenance to keep Americans alive and healthy. By the end of the twentieth century, they had succeeded in producing and distributing not only more than enough to feed Americans, but enough to turn America into the world's breadbasket. Their success should be a cause for rejoicing, but at the beginning of the twenty-first century, success appears to be turning to tragedy. Americans die from eating too much food and the wrong kinds of it. The food industry, blinded to any concerns beyond short-term profits, preys on its customers with advertising, corrupts the political process, and manipulates the very nature of what people desire to eat. Nestle has thoroughly and carefully documented the food industry's unholy influence over public- health policy. Many people's lives and livelihoods are at stake in the conflict Nestle illuminates, and it will take scientific knowledge, political wisdom and leadership, enlightened and ethical corporate management, and consumer education to produce a positive outcome. Mark Knoblauch.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Nestle (chair, nutrition and food studies, NYU) offers an expos of the tactics used by the food industry to protect its economic interests and influence public opinion. She shows how the industry promotes sales by resorting to lobbying, lawsuits, financial contributions, public relations, advertising, alliances, and philanthropy to influence Congress, federal agencies, and nutrition and health professionals. She also describes the food industry's opposition to government regulation, its efforts to discredit nutritional recommendations while pushing soft drinks to children via alliances with schools, and its intimidation of critics who question its products or its claims. Nestle berates the food companies for going to great lengths to protect what she calls "techno-foods" by confusing the public regarding distinctions among foods, supplements, and drugs, thus making it difficult for federal regulators to guard the public. She urges readers to inform themselves, choose foods wisely, demand ethical behavior and scientific honesty, and promote better cooperation among industry and government. This provocative work will cause quite a stir in food industry circles. Highly recommended. Irwin Weintraub, Brooklyn Coll., NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
