When I was a sophomore in high school, my typical lunchtime routine was to consume a can of Hawaiian Punch, a bag of white cheddar cheese Lance popcorn (both purchased from the ‘snack line’ of the school cafeteria), and an apple (brought from home), while doing my world history homework. I would have been wearing round wire-framed glasses and a hunter green sweater with maroon and white horizontal stripes. Also I had a perm. So many things about that image are terrible, aren’t they?
Anyway, on to the book (it relates to this story, I promise). Marion Nestle’s Food Politics discusses ways in which the food industry influences what people eat and the mechanisms the industry uses to increase profits – such as making sodas and snack foods available in schools (as my small-town school district had done to help raise money for sports and other “extras”), resisting attempts to require health claims on foods and supplements to be backed by scientific research, and influencing government policy (such as the “food pyramid” nutrition guidelines) via lobbying. I learned about the book from the podcast Maintenance Phase, where co-host Michael Hobbes often mentions it when talking about critiques of the diet and “wellness” industries.
The positives: We (at least most of us) eat food every day, but we don’t necessarily think much about the forces that shape what makes it onto our plates. Food Politics examines the impacts of different systems, including government, scientific research, and media on what we eat and how new foods are introduced and promoted. The book is extensively researched and provides full references in the endnotes for readers who might want more detail. Nestle is an academic, but the book is written in an engaging style and doesn’t require an extensive academic background to understand.
The negatives: The book was published in 2002, with an updated edition in 2007, so it is a bit dated. In addition, a lot of the issues in the book are framed in terms of the role of food and the food industry in promoting “obesity”. There are many factors that contribute to people’s weights and many thoughtful criticisms of the idea of obesity as a problem, at both the individual and societal levels (see Aubrey Gordon’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Fat for a much more in-depth conversation about this), so I mentally resisted a lot of this framing. It was also a bit surprising because I had learned about the book on Maintenance Phase, which is very invested in resisting the messaging around “obesity” and the idea of an “obesity epidemic”.
Recommended for fans of: Maintenance Phase (especially the episodes “Olestra” and “The Great Protein Fiasco”), The Fifth Risk, Fast Food Nation