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The Fish Counter
America’s leading nutritionist teaches you how to navigate the fish counter.
A standalone extract from the newly revised edition of her groundbreaking What to Eat (which is forthcoming in fall 2025 as What to Eat Now).
Marion Nestle, America’s preeminent nutritionist and the scholar widely credited with establishing the field of modern American food studies, takes us through every aspect of how we grow, market, shop for, store, label, and eat fish in America.
With her trademark persistence and unerring eye for detail, Nestle pulls the curtain back on the complicated routes that fish have to go through to make it to our supermarket fish counter. What is the history of methylmercury contamination in our fish supplies? How have government agencies dealt with it in the past? How have they communicated its dangers to us, and how do they do that now? What should we consider when we think about food safety and fish? How healthy is fish, in fact?
Marion Nestle answers these and many more questions at the heart of how we consume fish. These chapters are a master class for anyone looking to eat more sustainably, mindfully, and with a full awareness of the many complicated factors at play when you’re standing at the fish counter trying to make a decision about what fish you ought to buy for your dinner.
The Fish Counter is part of the Picador Shorts series “Oceans, Rivers, and Streams” in which excerpts from beloved classics speak to our relationship with our water bodies, great and small.
A standalone extract from the newly revised edition of her groundbreaking What to Eat (which is forthcoming in fall 2025 as What to Eat Now).
Marion Nestle, America’s preeminent nutritionist and the scholar widely credited with establishing the field of modern American food studies, takes us through every aspect of how we grow, market, shop for, store, label, and eat fish in America.
With her trademark persistence and unerring eye for detail, Nestle pulls the curtain back on the complicated routes that fish have to go through to make it to our supermarket fish counter. What is the history of methylmercury contamination in our fish supplies? How have government agencies dealt with it in the past? How have they communicated its dangers to us, and how do they do that now? What should we consider when we think about food safety and fish? How healthy is fish, in fact?
Marion Nestle answers these and many more questions at the heart of how we consume fish. These chapters are a master class for anyone looking to eat more sustainably, mindfully, and with a full awareness of the many complicated factors at play when you’re standing at the fish counter trying to make a decision about what fish you ought to buy for your dinner.
The Fish Counter is part of the Picador Shorts series “Oceans, Rivers, and Streams” in which excerpts from beloved classics speak to our relationship with our water bodies, great and small.
96 pages, Paperback
Published June 10, 2025
2 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Marion Nestle
43 books384 followersMarion Nestle, Ph.D, M.P.H., is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. She is also a professor of Sociology at NYU and a visiting professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University.
Nestle received her BA from UC Berkeley, Phi Beta Kappa, after attending school there from 1954-1959. Her degrees include a Ph.D in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley.
Nestle received her BA from UC Berkeley, Phi Beta Kappa, after attending school there from 1954-1959. Her degrees include a Ph.D in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 2, 2025
A short excerpt from one of Marion Nestle’s other books, I enjoyed reading this for the classic type of analysis you might expect from Nestle. Great overview of the policy and regulatory history of fishing and seafood regulations (of lack thereof), analysis of present issues in advancing regulations and research, likely condensed analysis of advocacy groups and industry actors, and summaries of useful advice for consumers (I say that last with a grain of salt because as Nestle points out, none of the issues with eating responsibly farmed or fished, sustainable, healthy, and safe seafood are particularly “easy” for anyone to navigate in the grocery store). Of course since the book is just an excerpt, Nestle is limited in discussing many key questions an interested reader may want to know more about. For that I recommend following up on the sources cited, and looking to other more comprehensive works covering issues in fishing and fish farming. If that’s not your jam, then no worries, because the information and analysis provided by Nestle here is probably just what you’re looking for! As for me, I’m on a side quest to learn more about aquaculture…
July 11, 2025
A quick read but mostly it is 75 pages of “omg there are no standards and the fishing and coal* industries have had a pernicious influence and it is impossible for a consumer to know what to eat”. That is probably true but it felt like it led nowhere.
One easy to use punchline though: albacore tuna is very high in mercury, while skipjack tuna has 1/3 that amount of mercury. Also: don’t eat very much of anything caught in an inland lake or river in the US. There were also some things that are *not* easy to use but still interesting, eg the “country of origin” for a fish caught at sea is the flag on the ship that caught it, so essentially there is zero info on the actual origin.
* coal because it is the main source of the mercury emissions that find their way to fish, especially ones high in the food chain.
One easy to use punchline though: albacore tuna is very high in mercury, while skipjack tuna has 1/3 that amount of mercury. Also: don’t eat very much of anything caught in an inland lake or river in the US. There were also some things that are *not* easy to use but still interesting, eg the “country of origin” for a fish caught at sea is the flag on the ship that caught it, so essentially there is zero info on the actual origin.
* coal because it is the main source of the mercury emissions that find their way to fish, especially ones high in the food chain.
December 23, 2025
bottom line is fish industry is a mess and labels can’t be trusted.
there was a lot of emphasis on PCBs, methylmercury, dyes, food labeling & regulation - rightly so… but I wish there was more on the politics of labor & human rights in the fish supply chain
there was a lot of emphasis on PCBs, methylmercury, dyes, food labeling & regulation - rightly so… but I wish there was more on the politics of labor & human rights in the fish supply chain
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews