Unsavory Truth

Whenever we turn on the TV, flip a page in a magazine, or glance at a flyer in the grocery store, we are constantly bombarded with nutritional advice. Almond products can boost your memory! Milk helps build up your bones! Cereal is part of a doctor-approved balanced breakfast for growing girls and boys! Study after study tells us what we should eat, how much, and when. Words like "superfood" and "guilt free" convince us that we're making the right choice when we pluck an item off the shelf and head for the checkout line. We count on nutrition science to guide us through the overwhelming choices in our local grocery store and helps us make the best decisions for our health.

Except it often doesn't. Many of these studies we rely on to make decisions are not funded by unbiased third parties-they're actually funded by companies seeking to buoy their own products. As renowned food expert Marion Nestle reveals in Unsavory Truth, most nutrition societies, committees, and departments are actually in the food industry's pocket. Whether it's a study claiming moderate exercise is enough to cancel out the calories in sugary sodas (backed by Coca-Cola) or a report about how blueberries can reduce the risk of erectile dysfunction (backed by the US Highbush Blueberry Council), the food industry has learned how to turn selective disclosure and partisan probes into major profit. Like Big Pharma has corrupted medical science, so Big Food has corrupted nutrition. In a nation where more than two-thirds of adults and one-third of children are considered overweight or obese, it's never been more important to put our public health first. With stricter legislation for food companies and researchers, stricter policies for societies and journals, and better consumer education, Nestle argues that we have a fighting chance to get our country's nutrition back on track.

With riveting prose and unmatched investigative rigor, Unsavory Truth reveals how big food companies took over nutrition science-and how we can take it back.

“"What happens when one of the country's great nutrition investigators follows the money in food and science? You get this riveting, provocatively-written book, which deftly explores how the processed food industry has deepened our dependence on its products by sponsoring and manipulating food research for decades. This book should be read by anyone who has been seduced by the words, 'New study shows...'--which is all of us."-- Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat”

"Unsavory Truth is fascinating, and wherever you fall on the spectrum of worrying about food industry conflicts, a worthwhile read."--Weighty Matters
"A remorseless dissection of the corruption of science by industry."--Nature
"In clear, concise language, Marion Nestle details the many ways our ideas about what to eat are being manipulated by Big Food. If you want to make better choices, read this book."--Ruth Reichl, former editor of Gourmet Magazine
"In her latest book, Unsavory Truth, Nestle levels a withering fusillade of criticism against food and beverage companies that use questionable science and marketing to push their own agendas about what should end up on our dinner tables...There is indeed something rotten in the state of dietary science, but books like this show us that we consumers also hold a great deal of power."--Science
"Marion Nestle has been a guiding light for sanity, credibility, and justice in food and nutrition for decades; she stands alone in her field. In Unsavory Truth, she exposes the awful deceptions practiced on eaters by manipulative food companies using 'scientific research' to try to make themselves look good."--Mark Bittman, author of How to Cook Everything
"Marion Nestle is a national treasure. She has the courage to take on multinational corporations and the wisdom to separate the facts from the spin. If you care about our food system and the health of your family, Unsavory Truth is essential reading."--Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation
"Marion Nestle is a tireless warrior for public health, and her meticulous research and irrefutable arguments are desperately needed right now. This book, as frightening as it is, compels us to discover where true health begins: nutrition starts in the ground, with real food that is sustainably grown, eaten in season, and alive."--Alice Waters, founder, owner, and executive chef of Chez Panisse
"Marion Nestle is a truth-teller in a world awash with nutrition lies of one kind and another. In this scintillating and eye-opening book, Nestle reveals how much of our confusion about food in modern times has been spread by the food industry itself, which passes off marketing as science and funds 'research' designed to show that its products are harmless. Unsavory Truth is essential reading for anyone in search of hard facts about what to eat."--Bee Wilson, author of First Bite and Consider the Fork
"Nestle delivers a groundbreaking look at how food corporations influence nutrition research and public policy...General and specialist readers alike will appreciate this important message for consumers."--Publishers Weekly
"Nestle proves yet again that she is a unique, valuable voice for engaged food consumers."--Kirkus
"Nestle reveals not only how the food industry manipulates nutrition science, but how readers can reclaim their health from these marketing schemes."--Foodtank
"Nestle writes in simple and informative language, diving into history, university politics, and failed government policies to improve people's health."--Vice, Tonic
"The links and conflicts of interest between the food industry and the world of nutrition professionals are, in Nestle's telling, perhaps even wilder and more egregiously tangled."--New York Magazine, The Cut
"This well documented, accessible venture makes a compelling argument."--Booklist
"Through her investigation into how money flows from companies and trade groups to labs, [Nestle] shows how pervasive the problem is--and why it's distorting how we think about health."--Vox
"What happens when one of the country's great nutrition investigators follows the money in food and science? You get this riveting, provocatively-written book, which deftly explores how the processed food industry has deepened our dependence on its products by sponsoring and manipulating food research for decades. This book should be read by anyone who has been seduced by the words, 'New study shows...'--which is all of us."--Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat
One of Nature's Best Science Books of the Year (2018)

Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, emerita, at New York University, and Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She has a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an MPH in public health nutrition from UC Berkeley. She lives in New York City.

Whenever we turn on the TV, flip a page in a magazine, or glance at a flyer in the grocery store, we are constantly bombarded with nutritional advice. Almond products can boost your memory! Milk helps build up your bones! Cereal is part of a doctor-approved balanced breakfast for growing girls and boys! Study after study tells us what we should eat, how much, and when. Words like "superfood" and "guilt free" convince us that we're making the right choice when we pluck an item off the shelf and head for the checkout line. We count on nutrition science to guide us through the overwhelming choices in our local grocery store and helps us make the best decisions for our health.Except it often doesn't. Many of these studies we rely on to make decisions are not funded by unbiased third parties-they're actually funded by companies seeking to buoy their own products. As renowned food expert Marion Nestle reveals in Unsavory Truth , most nutrition societies, committees, and departments are actually in the food industry's pocket. Whether it's a study claiming moderate exercise is enough to cancel out the calories in sugary sodas (backed by Coca-Cola) or a report about how blueberries can reduce the risk of erectile dysfunction (backed by the US Highbush Blueberry Council), the food industry has learned how to turn selective disclosure and partisan probes into major profit. Like Big Pharma has corrupted medical science, so Big Food has corrupted nutrition. In a nation where more than two-thirds of adults and one-third of children are considered overweight or obese, it's never been more important to put our public health first. With stricter legislation for food companies and researchers, stricter policies for societies and journals, and better consumer education, Nestle argues that we have a fighting chance to get our country's nutrition back on track.With riveting prose and unmatched investigative rigor, Unsavory Truth reveals how big food companies took over nutrition science-and how we can take it back.

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