Food Politics The Role of Corporate Influence in U.S. Nutritional Policies

With so many ideas circulating about health and nutrition, how do people decide what to eat? We look to magazines and the latest news story for advice, but, importantly, many of our beliefs about how to eat come from information handed down by government agencies. In Food Politics, Marion Nestle exposes a nutritional world many of us do not know exists: the world of food politics, where government regulations become highly influenced by the powerful corporations that bring our food to market. Nestle argues that much of the obesity and related health problems in America can be traced to action or lack thereof on the part of corporate-influenced U.S. agencies answering more to the needs of company profit than to the health of consumers.

Beginning at the turn of the century, the U.S. government undertook the initiative to get Americans to "eat more" (31-34). This was a necessary health initiative due to the high death rates from diseases due to malnutrition. However, from the 1960's on it became clear that health concerns had shifted and now the imperative was to "eat less," to combat obesity and the related diseases of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes among others (38-40). The initial advice to eat less went along well with the concerns of food production companies. The USDA, charged with protecting agricultural interests, through loose interpretation of its stated role in food production, became the