What to Eat

What to Eat, by Marion Nestle, 2006, is described on the back cover as “the one book that tells you everything you need to know about food, with clarity, insight, wit, and wisdom.” It is certainly comprehensive and very readable, but it would be more accurate to indicate that it has everything you need to know about food sold in supermarkets – not about which types of food to eat.

Marion Nestle was a Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University. She is well known as a public health advocate and an opponent of processed (junk) food and the major international food corporations that produce it and control most of the food sold in supermarkets throughout the world.

Despite the title, Nestle doesn’t tell the reader what to eat, but gives enough information about the range of foods available in supermarkets to help us make up our own minds – or at least to better understand what we’re buying. When she mentions her own food or buying preferences, she explains why.

The information is very focused on the United States, but this is relevant only in terms of the government or commercial groups she mentions and the statistics relating to food consumption. The valuable (and interesting) information for me is about food supply, food chains, and how food is processed.

The book is organized as if Prof. Nestle is guiding us through a supermarket. She starts by explaining why supermarkets are laid out as they are. It made me realize that I had never noticed that all supermarkets I have ever been in (USA, UK, and Europe) really are organized exactly the same way. She writes:

“It is no coincidence that one supermarket is laid out much like another: breathtaking amounts of research have gone into designing these places. There are precise reasons why milk is at the back of the store and the center aisles are so long. You are forced to go past thousands of other products on your way to get what you need.”

Some of the design “rules” include putting perishables (produce, meat, dairy) at the periphery – back and side walls. The aisle nearest the entrance has the items that are considered “impulse buys” or that look or smell enticing (flowers, freshly baked bread). And high-profit items in the center aisles are placed 60 inches (152 centimeters) above the floor where they can be seen easily (with or without glasses).

I started to read this from the beginning, but then started to skip around to the sections I was most interested in. So this book could be read like a novel or referred to like a reference book. I didn’t read the sections on Infant Formula and Baby Food or Prepared Foods because those involve foods I never eat. But the rest of the book (each chapter focusing on a different section of the supermarket) had information both fascinating and useful. Although much of this information has become more available to the average consumer since the book was written, I still learned a lot.

On a personal note, I met Prof. Nestle many years ago at a presentation she gave at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, Austria. She has a very personable style of speaking, and her writing is the same. Although this book is the result of extensive research, it reads like she is talking to the reader in a friendly, conversational manner.