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Marion Nestle
Nutritionist and Author
Nutritionist Marion Nestle discusses her new book, What to Eat, at the Center for Healthy Communities in Los Angeles.
Public Confusion about Diet and Health
What I confront all the time is people saying they 'just can't understand what's going on with nutrition' and 'why don't you nutritionists make up your minds.' And I think there are good reasons for public confusion. On the one hand, we read in the papers all the time about rising rates of obesity and rising rates of type II diabetes that go along with that obesity. And then studies come out saying a low fat diet doesn't do much to cut your risk of heart disease or cancer. The research that's coming out on nutrition and health is exceptionally confusing and has been for the last couple years.
Eating Healthfully is Simple
If you want to eat healthfully, all you have to do is eat less, move more, eat fruits and vegetables, don't eat too much junk food and, for heaven's sakes, enjoy what you're eating. And that will take care of a lot of the problems. But instead, people told me that they were really confused, and that supermarkets were ground zero for their confusion.
Deconstructing Supermarkets
The first thing I discovered was that all supermarkets in some ways are all very much alike. They all start with the produce section or flowers or something that smells good. They all look alike even if they're in Anchorage, Alaska in February-raising all kinds of questions about locally grown food, food miles, and fossil fuels. We have a food supply that doesn't depend on seasons or location.
"Eat More" Strategies
If you're in a store and you find yourself buying a lot of sweet stuff, it's not an accident. You've got a 25% probability that you're going to come home with some. The sweet stuff is accompanied by 'eat more' strategies that are part of the whole environment of making it easier to buy unhealthier foods than healthier foods.
Nutrition Sells Products
Today, because Congress has told the FDA that they don't want them to be too restrictive, the health claim situation has gotten to the point of being ridiculous. Here is a cereal with five health claims on it-despite the fact that sugars appear 11 times in the ingredient list.
Food Marketing to Children
They want kids to think that they're supposed to eat 'kid's food;' food made especially for them; food that comes in boxes with cartoons on them; food that comes in funny colors and shapes; unidentified food objects; kid cuisine. The object is to get kids to want 'kid's food' and not to eat what their parents are eating. I think this is totally subversive of parental authority. And the advertising that is targeted to making kids want 'kid's food' makes it more difficult for parents to control what their kids are eating and to get their kids to eat healthfully.
Advice for Dealing with Supermarkets
I think you only shop the periphery and you never set foot in the center aisles. If you do get stuck in the center aisles, never buy anything with more than five ingredients, don't buy anything you can't pronounce, don't buy anything with artificial anything in it, and I say there should be a boycott of foods that have cartoons on the package. And if you don't want kids eating junk food, you just don't buy it or have it in the house.
Vote with Your Fork
The wonderful thing about food is that when it comes down to individual choice, you get to vote with your fork. Many people in our society today are very depressed by their ability to effect change. If you want to do something about climate change, if you want to do something about tax policy, if you want to do something about the war in Iraq, there's not a whole lot that you as an individual can do. But there is plenty that you as an individual can do every time you walk into a supermarket because you vote with your fork. Not only for the kind of food you want to be eating, but also for the food system you want and the kind of world you want to live in.
Questions and Answers
What can be done about some of the disparities in supermarkets across different neighborhoods?
When supermarkets have dirty floors and rotten vegetables but people are still shopping there, how do you bring about change?
How can the American Heart Association allow their logo to be placed on foods that aren't healthy?
What do you think about the lack of cooking in America?
Dr. Marion Nestle is professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. Described as one of the nation's smartest and most influential authorities on nutrition and food policy, she’s the author of What to Eat, Food Politics, and Safe Food.
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Published: September 15, 2005
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