What to Eat Now: The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters

by Marion Nestle

A thoroughly revised classic, What to Eat Now is a field guide to food shopping in America, and a treatise on how to eat well and deliciously.

What to Eat Now is a clear-eyed, no-nonsense guide to the most important food questions on our plate today. How do we make informed dietary choices for ourselves, our families, and our communities?

In the twenty years since Marion Nestle’s groundbreaking What to Eat first came out, food has undergone a radical change. The emergence of techno foods, the growth of corporate organics, and a surge of interest in food-delivery services reignited by the pandemic are just a few of the things that have altered how we think about how we eat.

The typical American supermarket carries more than thirty thousand products. How do you choose? Misinformation, disinformation, and corporate misdirection play a crucial and hard-to-see role in how the average shopper thinks about and chooses food.

In an aisle-by-aisle guide, Nestle, America’s preeminent nutritionist and a founding figure in American food studies, takes us through the American supermarket. With persistence, wit, and common sense, she establishes the basics of good nutrition, food safety, and ethical and sustainable eating, and gives readers a close-up look at the web of interests—from supermarket slotting policies to multinational food corporations to lobbying groups—that food has to navigate before it gets to your shopping basket.

Above all else, What to Eat Now is a defense of real food and of the value of eating deliciously, mindfully, and responsibly.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Health, Audiobook, Nutrition, Science, Cooking

681 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 11, 2025

About the author

Marion 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.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

She is a national treasure. This book is insanely comprehensive. The bottom line is to eat less calories, fat, sugar, and salt. It isn't about willpower. More time in the gym will not offset the calories in a donut. The government has made eating well an uphill battle in the name of politics instead of helping people. Manufactures make obesity about personal responsibility but deceptive marketing and lobbying politicians are the root cause. I’d considered adding fish to my diet until I read her comments about how poorly regulated the industry is.

[Crystal King · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it first came out and found it insightful then, but now, when we are faced with such commercialism, climate crisis, and economic uncertainty, it resonates even more than ever. If you want a real sense of how the food system in America works, you need to dig into this book. A dense, information-packed read that will change how you think about food forever.

[Valerie Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good info from this book if you’re really interested in why you should or shouldn’t eat different types of food. At times, there was a little too much info for me to absorb, but the author did her research when it came to explaining about foods. I read many books on this subject and some info she writes about I have seen many times in books. The info that I have never come across in my readings, was thorough and interesting.

[Meghan Van Note · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every bit of this shit. Industry-funded studies, slotting, lobbying, nefarious marketing, super PACs, “nutritionism”, monoculture, this book is a very comprehensive dive into the American food and agricultural landscape. More than anything, this book made me curious. Curious about funding of any product / study behind it and curious about if we can create greater incentive towards sustainable modes of production and away from boosting shareholder value as the primary purpose of industry

[Carlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Starts with an overview on how supermarket chains make a profit, which was expected yet still surprising.
Then we move on to how to eat and what to eat (ultra processed vs real food). Learning to read food labels, navigating the accuracies or inaccuracies, seals, certifications and their meanings (fair trade, rainforest alliance…) and the annoying but purposeful vagueness of it all.
One knows that everything and everyone is driven by profit but to see it so blatantly in the food industry is shocking and honestly, sad.
Bottled water, tap water, water inequality. This book covers everything about consumption in great details. While this can get to be intense because of the amount of information, it’s very interesting and eye opening, despite being mostly American-based. Moving on, meat, veggies, eggs, dairy, vegan substitutes, fish and the whole mercury dilemma, ethics, labels, benefits versus risks, marketing. The pet food part I found interesting as well. Breads, prepared salads, this book really delves deep into everything you find in the supermarket and more. In a way this is overwhelming which is why I read this over a long period of time, and there is no way all of the information will ever stick, but some did and that’s more than enough for me.
I never read the first book, What to Eat, but am curious to read it now just to see how much has changed.

[Anna Beggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

*audiobook* this one was 27 hours long. I enjoyed this guided journey through the grocery store, aisle by aisle, dissecting the politics, psychology, history, and health hazards of each section of the supermarket. My mind was blown by how deep the deception is about who is really in charge of our nutrition. Stockholders control the mega corporations that process corn, wheat, rice, soy, sugar, into the thousands of processed foods that grace the grocery shelves. The boxes, bags, jars, and cans of food that stay “fresh” for months. Even the “fresh” food in the produce section is hardly freshly picked, often it has come on a long journey to finally get to your basket.
In a system that is built on ever increasing profits, companies have to keep finding ways to get you to eat more food or pay more for it. So there’s always a tempting new flavor, a nutrition trend, more fiber, more protein, more virtue.
From bread to milk to meat to pet food to baby food to supplements to the take out counter. It’s all about making money, whether it’s making you healthier or not.
I feel like a veil has been lifted from my eyes and now I’m seeing past the advertisements, the product placement, the psychological tricks aimed at me to get me to buy buy buy. But we all have to buy food. We all have to eat. And eating healthy is unfortunately a luxury in this country that the people in power are making even harder to achieve, through euphemistic regulations and policies influenced by big corn, sugar, and dairy. I’m reminded that my money is my vote. As much as possible, spend on what you want to support.

[Steven Latour · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the modern food industry and the things that we eat everyday, going aisle-by-aisle in the grocery store, finding the make-up and sources of these foods, analyzing their content and nutrition levels, and taking a look at how marketing and profit have shaped the landscape of how, when, and what we eat. Gives excellent guidelines at how to we can make the best choices for ourselves and the planet. Reading this book made me extremely hungry.

[January · Rating 5 out of 5]

What to Eat Now: The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters by Marion Nestle (2026)
revised sequel to What To Eat (2006)
27h 43m narrated by Lisa Larsen, 720 pages

Genre: Nonfiction, Self Improvement, Fitness and Nutrition, Politics

Rating as a movie: PG-13

Featuring: Nutritionist, Introduction, USDA - United States Department of Agriculture, FDA - Food and Drug Administration, The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate, Avoiding Low Income Areas, Diet & Health, Real Food Versus Ultra-Processed Products, NOVA, Decoding Food Labels, Ingredients Lists, Dealing With Nutrition Facts, Health Claims and Endorsements, Warning Labels, Calories, Definition Confusion, Measurement Confusion, Cutting Calories, Diets & Dieting, Certification Seals and Eco Labels, Third-party Certifiers, Food Attributes, Social Values, Gluten-free, Whole Grain, Vegan, Paleo, Keto, Kosher, BPA, Fair-Trade, Rainforest Alliance, Carbon Neutral, Greenwashing, Beverage Aisles, Bottle Water, Tap Water Standards and Treatments, Chlorine, Lead, Vitamin Water, Sweetened Water, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Artificial Sweeteners, Sugary Drinks and Sodas, Sports Drinks, Juice and Juice Drinks + Fake Juice, Beyond Water - Beverages With Benefits, Functional Drinks, Kombucha, Vinegar, Coffee, Teas, Green Tea, Hard Seltzers, Alcoholic Beverages, Cannabis Infused Drinks, Produce Section, The Cost of Fresh, Distance of Travel, Food Miles, How Fresh is Fresh, Organic Produce Standards, Produce Safety, Genetically Modified Shelf Life Extended and Politicize; Meat Processing, Meat Labels, Meat Safety, E. coli, Salmonella, Antibiotics, Organic Meat vs Natural Meat, Animal Byproducts, Fish Benefits vs Risks, Methylmercury, Fish Farming, Fish Labeling, Seafood Fraud, Fake Coloring, "Organic Fish" - No Official US Standards, Surimi, Plant Based Seafood, Safety and Sustainability, Dairy Industry, Hormones, Milk As Health Food, Calcium, Dairy Foods: Raw, Pasteurized, Processed; Cheese, Yogurt, Salmonella & Eggs, Lightly Processed, Processed Culinary Ingredients, Salt Intake, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Ultra Processed, Cereals, Snack Foods/Junk Foods, Oreos, KIND Bars, Plant Based Meat, 3D Printing Food, Vertical Agriculture, Kids and Pets, Infant Formulas and Baby Foods, Toxins in Baby Foods, Foods "Just For Kids," The Pester Factor, Pet Foods - Dogs & Cats, Evolving Trends, Disease Targeting Foods, Treats, Obesity in Pets, Alternative Pet Diets, Evolving Trends, Dietary Supplements, Cannabis Edibles - Medicine, Food, Supplement, or Snake Oil?, Cannabis-Infused Food, THC Children and Pet Emergencies, Breads, Prepared Foods: Salads & More, Food Borne Illnesses, Restaurants, Takeout Foods, Calorie and Portion Size, Conclusion, Taking Action, Beyond Personal Responsibility

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🍼🍫🥫🥚🥩🍞🥑

My thoughts: 📱4% 1:04:45 The Basics - I knew some of this, and still, my mind is blown. I was aware that items are placed on shelves because they make more money depending on your eye level, but I had no idea the supermarket was making millions of dollars by selling these locations to food companies. I know it's hard to keep grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods, but I did not know that companies were intentionally pulling out of low-income neighborhoods, then choosing affluent places for new stores to elevate their brand.
📱7% 1:45:31 The Basics - Chapter 3 Decoding Food Labels - I am overwhelmed by how much information I'm receiving right now. My mind is blown by how shady money makes everyone.
📱14% 3:45:37 The Basics - Chapter 7 - So much amazing information. Our government really needs to correct the food industry.
📱33% 9:00:47 The Meat Section - This book is so enlightening; our government really needs to do better or leave the food industry alone. I'm afraid the meat section might make me a vegetarian, because after learning what's going on with the produce and water, I'm afraid.
📱40% 11:03:22 The Fish Section - I'm not complaining because this is a long book, but I feel like the meat section was rushed a bit.
📱51% 13:56:22 The Diary Section - I'm probably going to give up on USDA after this book.

This story is like a coming-of-age novel for the food industry in America. It opens your eyes to how you have been lied to and manipulated. They really aren't protecting you like they claim, and it's all about the money at the end of the day. It officially took me 10 days to read this book, although I don't think it counts because I only played this book seven of those days, and the seventh day was literally 20 minutes after midnight. So that should have been 9 days, but I'm an honest person, and I did have to go past midnight to finish this book because I spent several hours taking a break after realizing I had 13¾ hours on this audiobook and was on my 9th day of reading it. Although it is very long-winded, all of the information is relevant, and I feel like she could have said more, but she moved on from some topics quickly. There were a few topics I think she could have reduced a bit, but again, it was all relevant information. I don't know what I'm going to be eating next month, but I know what I'm removing from my shopping list, and I was livid to discover the truth about albacore tuna. At one point near the end, when they were discussing dairy, I was wondering if those Souls from The Host by Stephenie Meyer could do a better job with our food industry and laws than the U.S. government.

Recommend to others: Yes! If you can get through it is an entertaining and informative read, just very long-winded.

Books and Authors mentioned: What to Eat by Marion Nestle, Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition & Health by Marion Nestle, Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics by Marion Nestle, The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard, Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety by Marion Nestle, Eat Well and Stay Well by Ancel and Margaret Keys, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (aka Alice in Wonderland) by Lewis Carroll, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, Soylent Green by Stanley R. Greenberg [based on] Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison, My Kitchen Wars by Betty Fussell, Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken, The Hidden Persuaders by Wayne Dudley, Llama Llama Loves to Read by Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan, How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America by Priya Fielding-Singh, Feed Your Pet Right: The Authoritative Guide to Feeding Your Dog and Cat by Malden C. Nesheim and Marion Nestle; Pet Food Politics by Marion Nestle, Whole Dog Journal by Nancy Kerns, Big Kibble: The Hidden Dangers of the Pet Food Industry and How to Do Better by Our Dogs by Shawn Buckley and Dr Oscar Chavez, The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book by Alice B. Toklas, The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker, John Becker, and Megan Scott; The Portion Teller Plan: The No Diet Reality Guide to Eating, Cheating, and Losing Weight Permanently by Lisa R. Young, Ph. D., R. D.;

Memorable Quotes: The focus of my work continues to be on the politics of food, with special attention to the ways food companies determine food choices—and, therefore, health—through marketing and other means. Food companies, as I often point out, are not social service or public health agencies; they are businesses backed by shareholders who expect ever-increasing returns on their investment. Business imperatives drive food companies to produce and market highly profitable “junk”—more politely, “ultra-processed”—foods and normalize their consumption. As a consequence of standard business practices, food companies created an “eat more” food environment, one that promotes eating often, everywhere, and in large amounts, without regard to its consequences for human or planetary health.

The term “ultra-processed” was coined only in 2009. It refers to a specific category of processed foods—those that are industrially produced, intended to replace basic foods, and designed to be irresistibly delicious, or addictive if you prefer. Once the category was defined, researchers could study it. Hundreds of studies now associate ultra-processed food consumption with poor health. But because these foods are among the most profitable to their makers and sellers, advice to eat less of them comes up against—and seriously threatens—business interests.

The most profitable supermarket foods are not necessarily best for your health; the conflict between health and business goals is the root of confusion about food choices.

More recent research confirms Packard’s observations and continues to inspire awe in their meticulous attention to detail.² Entire textbooks and academic journals explain how to use information about consumer behavior to sell products. Researchers constantly interview shoppers. With modern scanner technology, supermarkets can track your purchases and compare what you say with what you actually buy. If you belong to a supermarket discount club or loyalty program, you get discounts, and if you order groceries online, you get convenience—but in both cases the store gets details of your buying habits. Marketers use these details to target ads to your personal preferences.³ In stores using checkout-free technology, cameras track everything you look at and buy.⁴ On this basis, retailers decide how to lay out stores, position products on shelves, set prices, and advertise. At supermarkets, you exercise freedom of choice and personal responsibility with every item you put in your shopping cart, but massive efforts have gone into inducing you to want some products more than others.

If you think of supermarkets as real estate ventures, it makes sense that they charge rent for shelf space. Stores allot shelf space through a system of “incentives,” in quotes because they sound suspiciously like bribes. Food companies pay supermarkets “slotting fees” for shelf space, and more for the most visible spaces.

You pay for this system in three ways: higher prices for heavily marketed products, higher taxes to compensate for the deductions food businesses take for slotting and other marketing expenses, and higher costs for treating illnesses resulting from overconsumption of more profitable but less healthful food products.

When you order online from Walmart, its employees do the deliveries. Some other stores use Instacart, which has an interesting business model. It contracts with stores to fulfill online orders, but you order from Instacart, not the store. Instacart collects revenues from three sources: you (fees for delivery, service, and membership), the store (commission), and food companies (advertising).⁵⁵ You might think the fees sufficient to keep Instacart in business, but a third of its revenue comes from online advertising.⁵⁶ For a company like Instacart, the easiest way to reduce expenses is to pay employees as little as possible. It hires shoppers to collect the ordered items, buy the items with the company’s credit card, and deliver them, but it considers shoppers as independent contractors responsible for their own cars, bicycles, and health insurance. Delivery workers describe harrowing working conditions and much abuse from customers as well as managers.⁵⁷ Supermarkets use delivery services because they provide additional revenues even if discounted, but I can understand why Walmart uses its own service: It gets to keep the data generated by online orders. When you order from Instacart, your data belong to Instacart, not the store. And you do provide data. Instacart collects not only details about your purchases but also your identification, contact information, car, bank, credit rating, health and medical status, devices, and location. It gets this information using tracking technologies. Read the fine print: “Our partners, advertisers, and third-party advertising networks may also use these technologies to collect information about your online activity over time and across different websites or online services.”⁵⁸ Instacart says it uses these data to improve service, but it also gets to target you with advertising. Overall, Instacart considers your data a business asset, to be used as it pleases.

The basic principles of healthy and sustainable diets are so simple that the journalist Michael Pollan can summarize them in seven words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Salads and fruits do not trigger this kind of response. When we eat them and other minimally processed foods, enough is enough. But brand-name chips, cookies, and sugary drinks? We can never stop eating them. The food industry designs them that way, as Michael Moss’s investigations have shown. You don’t think you eat many ultra-processed foods? One study calculates that they account for more than half the calories in U.S. diets.¹¹ We love the taste and crunch of ultra-processed foods, and so do our kids, not least because food companies spend fortunes designing these products to be appealing (okay, addictive), convenient, and inexpensive. As a result of government policies aimed at keeping food prices low, ultra-processed foods are relatively cheap. One such policy is the farm bill (the omnibus law meant to be updated every five years), which supports growers of corn and soybeans, the sources of many ingredients. The payments authorized by the farm bill act as incentives for farmers to grow the subsidized crops everywhere they can, even in places with poor soil and water conditions. Tax policies permit food companies to deduct advertising costs as business expenses, meaning that consumers end up subsidizing the cost of marketing ultra-processed foods to children.¹²

As early as 1959, the cardiologist Ancel Keys (who died in 2004 at the age of one hundred) and his wife, Margaret, wrote these guidelines: “Do not get fat; if you are fat, reduce. Favor fresh vegetables and fruits. Avoid heavy use of salt and refined sugar. Get plenty of exercise and outdoor recreation. See your doctor regularly, and do not worry.”²⁴ This excellent advice still applies.

Dietary reductionism—the use of nutrients to stand for whole foods, such as adding vitamins to make cereals look healthy—has its own name: nutritionism.²⁵ Food companies love nutritionism because they can use this approach to market their products as having special health benefits—“sugar-free,” “no added salt.” Dietary guidelines use nutritionism to stay out of political trouble.

Political pressures help explain why guidelines mention foods (fruits and vegetables) when they advise eating more, but switch to nutrients (sugar, salt, saturated fat) when they advise eating less. You are supposed to understand that sugars, salt, and low nutrient density are euphemisms for ultra-processed foods, and that saturated fat is a euphemism for meat.

You might think that the for-profit health insurance industry would benefit from healthier clients, but that’s not how this system works. It costs more to provide preventive services for an entire population than to pay for the treatment of the smaller number of people who become ill—or so some economists say.²⁹ Phrasing the question the opposite way is even more disheartening: What industry or groups benefit from public confusion about nutrition and health? Here, the list is long and includes the food, restaurant, fast-food, diet, health club, pharmaceutical, and health-care industries, among many others. If you want to eat healthfully, you are up against all of them. The deep secret of American agriculture (revealed only by agricultural economists behind closed doors) is that there is far too much food available in America—about 4,000 calories per day for every man, woman, and newborn child. This is twice what the adult population needs on average; young children need less.³⁰ The 4,000-calorie figure is at the high end of the amount available in the food supply of industrialized countries. Even though these are available calories (the number produced in the United States, less exports, plus imports), and an overestimation of the amount people actually eat, they represent substantial excess.

Without provoking social disapproval, you can now snack all day instead of eating meals, consume gigantic amounts of food at a sitting, and eat in formerly forbidden places like clothing stores, bookstores, and libraries. It is socially acceptable for children to consume junk food in school, and to decide for themselves what to eat at home. These changes happened only within my lifetime and, in fact, just since the early 1980s—exactly in parallel with the rising prevalence of obesity. If you did not notice the changing social norms, or indeed welcomed them, it is because you are human. It is human nature to eat when presented with food, and to eat more when presented with more food. Food, after all, is one of life’s greatest pleasures. You are not supposed to have noticed the changes. Marketing methods are meant to slip below the radar of critical thinking, and mostly do. Once you start noticing how marketing works, the food scene looks quite different and making choices becomes easier. Your choices become informed.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t read every section but jumped around after getting through the first part and the last.

[Ashilikia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited for What to Eat Now, but was quite disappointed upon reading it. It is poorly edited, far longer than is useful or necessary, and contains unscientific reasoning of the type commonly used by predatory scammers such as supplement pushers. Ultimately, I skipped much of the book because I prefer not to read unscientific speculation, so I have marked it as DNF.

I am not a nutrition expert, and Dr. Marion Nestle is. I will call out where my criticisms are specifically related to me trying to apply my nutrition "knowledge", but most of my criticisms are instead about scientific method.

One of the alarming types of claims, which is mentioned multiple times throughout the book, is "this thing can be bad at high doses, so surely we should avoid any amount of it." For example, on p. 168 bottom: 'Critics of organics say, "So what? Pesticides are safe." As evidence, they point out that nobody has ever died from eating the small amounts of pesticide residues found on food. To this I say: Oh, please. Pesticides are demonstrably harmful to farmworkers and to "nontarget" wildlife, and they accumulate in soils for decades.[citation] *If they kill pests, can they be good for you?* (...)' [emphasis mine]

If you pour salt on a slug, the slug will die. While, to be fair, most Americans overconsume salt according to recommendations, slugs dying from it does not mean you should eat none with the reasoning that their death means it is unsafe to consume at all levels of consumption. If you give a human too much water, they will die. Yet we need water to survive. Dose matters. Yes, pesticides are demonstrably harmful in large doses, and it is false to claim they are completely safe. But to claim that the ability to kill means it is not good for you is unscientific (as evidenced by water), and this passage is unscientific in its alarm about pesticides. To be clear: I am not claiming pesticides *are* good for you, or that I enjoy or want to eat them. However, many substances are harmful when consumed above a threshold and not harmful well below that threshold, but Dr. Nestle is arguing that there is no safe threshold without scientific backing. This is a tactic commonly used by people pushing supplements and other misinformation.

This kind of claim occasionally pops up throughout the book. Another example is on p. 263 bottom: "The level of PCBs (and PFAS and other chemicals) in fish, farmed and otherwise, *may not be high enough to do measurable harm, but these chemicals can hardly be good for you. It makes sense to do everything possible to avoid them.* (emphasis mine)

The discussion of ultra-processed foods also set off red flags for scientific rigor. At the top of p. 31, Dr. Nestle talks about a study done by Dr. Kevin Hall about ultra-processed foods in which participants eating higher proportions of ultra-processed foods ate more calories, and concludes that "something about the taste, texture, appearance, and high calorie density (...) of ultra-processed foods makes them irresistible (...) and makes us unaware of how much we are eating them."

However, Dr. Kevin Hall has been clear that this is not his own interpretation of the study, and has expressed frustration with the conclusion that it is the ultra-processing, per se, that is the problem. And in fact, there is a follow-up study that, as of last year was being conducted, in which researchers designed diets to see if you can have a diet with a high proportion of ultra-processed foods that participants eat less of versus a diet low in ultra-processed foods. Julia Belluz and Dr. Hall talk about this in their book, Food Intelligence, and also in a podcast discussion which you can find on YouTube titled "The Most Honest Man In Nutrition Research | Kevin Hall PhD." The relevant discussion starts at 1:16:53, and more at 1:52:44. In short: yes, people ate more in the original study with one specific diet that was highly ultra-processed. But that doesn't mean the ultra-processing per se caused the issue; it could instead be an underlying difference that was present in the ultra-processed foods and not in the less processed foods. For example, it could be caused by a combination of factors, such as energy density or combinations of highly palatable food components (salt, sugar, and so on), that caused the difference. To claim that ultra-processing is inherently going to cause you to eat more with the main presented evidence being this study is not scientifically sound.

Dr. Nestle rails against ultra-processed foods throughout the book (ex. "all ultra-processed foods are junk foods" p. 29), but I am wary as most committee reportings I (remember I am a layperson) have read on the matter have cautioned that we need more research to understand if the ultra-processing is the issue per se, or something else. And claiming that "you can consider the first three [NOVA] categories to be food. Only NOVA 4, ultra-processed, requires caution" (p. 29) is very poor advice. Here is where I will insert my nutrition knowledge, like an idiot, out of my field: you can eat plenty of foods that are not ultra-processed that you should be cautious around. For example, if you fry thin potato slices in lard (NOVA 2) then coat them in high amounts of salt and eat two thousand calories of them for a snack, you are not doing your health any favors. I suspect Dr. Nestle agrees, and I wish that she had not stated that only ultra-processed foods require caution.

And, broadly: Dr. Nestle blends facts and personal opinion, which can mislead readers with the impression that the personal opinions are backed with rigorous science, when that is not always the case. Sometimes Dr. Nestle is very clear about opinion only being opinion, but sometimes the lines are more blurred. For example, a point that particularly bothered me: on p. 188, Dr. Nestle describes the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables using a short story about measuring out a whole pound of green beans and a pint of blueberries, which would meet the recommended amounts. Although she hedges "I could eat less of them and make up the difference with other fruits and salad" yet continues "but the amounts seem high." I routinely do meet the recommended amounts, and I do it by: eating vegetables across several meals (you can even eat them at breakfast), using at least some vegetables that are inherently delicious to me (such as eggplant, winter and summer squashes, beets, chard, and so on), and cooking vegetables to reduce their volume when applicable (such as for greens and eggplants). To conclude that because 4.5 cups, a pound, of green beans seems high, the recommendations are high overall, feels disingenuous. And it may discourage people from attempting to meet them.

There are many more bits here and there that set off scientific red flags, but I started this review with a complaint about brevity, so I will cap my ranting here. I don't eat many ultra-processed foods. I tend to prefer following the recommendations Dr. Nestle gives. She has incredible knowledge, and I would love to spend hours talking with her. But I wish her book was more scientifically rigorous and well-edited, and I do not plan to go back and read the chapters I skipped.

[Susan Waller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most eye-opening for me was the extent that the government, in other words we as taxpayers, subsidize the food industry in ways that not only do not support, but are actually detrimental to public health. Consumers also pay more because big corporations are allowed to pollute with impunity, forcing us to pay for our food and water to be decontaminated.

This book has much more detail than I think most readers will want. I skimmed a lot.


Pg 19
Grocery Redlining
When a chain does place a store in a low-income area, it often requires restrictive covenants to prevent competition from other stores.

Pg 34
US farm bills do little to support fruit and vegetable production. The US Dept. of Agriculture USDA and Congress consider food plants to be “specialty” crops and deal with them in the horticulture section of farm bills. In contrast, corn and soybeans fall under the much better supported commodities section.

Pg 101
Water quality report from Des Moines, Iowa showed:
The rivers that supply its water are loaded with nitrates from agricultural runoff. Managers of this treatment plant want the upstream contamination to stop. They sued the polluting counties, but unsuccessfully. This leaves the with having to treat the water to EPA standards, which they do but at enormous cost - upward of $10,000 per day in 2022.

Pg 104
You pay for clean water in five ways - in your utility bill, but also in taxes to pay for removing pollutants, in tax subsidies for companies that do the polluting in the first place, in installing home filters, and in the price of bottled water.

Pg 171
Fruits and vegetables grow in ‘non-sterile environments’ meaning in contact with animal manure. Fresh produce causes at least a third of annual outbreaks of foodborne illness. [Vegetables] are sometimes grown on farms bordering on industrial dairy or cattle operations or near waterways that drain factory farms. This exposes them to animal waste. The FDA and USDA operate under different laws. This puts the burden on you to wash greens

Pg 192
One of the first acts of the Biden administration was an attempt to break up meat monopolies and encourage the development of smaller and more diverse meat companies.

The costs of feed, fertilizers, machinery, and fuel get factored into the price of meat, but the externalized costs of cleaning up animal waste, dealing with the effects of agricultural runoff on drinking water sources, and creating dead zones in Lake Erie and the Gulf of Mexico do not. You pay those costs in taxes or at the grocery store. And factory farms are invariably located in low-income rural areas where residents have little political power.

Pg 207
The USDA oversees the safety of specific classes of animals - cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, mules, and goats and all domesticated birds. But the FDA is responsible for wild birds and meats considered unusual - rabbit, bison, game animals, deer, elk, moose and zoo animals.
The rules governing the inspection and testing policies of the FDA and the USDA differ. The FDA is chronically underfunded as congressional agriculture committees tend to be more generous to the USDA.

Pg 215
Irradiation allows companies to produce contaminated meat and fix the problem afterward. Because irradiation changes the taste of meat, it cannot be done intensely enough to kill all bacteria. The surviving bacteria can multiply and meat can be re-contaminated.

Pg 212
Widespread use of antibiotics in food animals kills bacterial pathogens but encourages the proliferation of any that survive - selecting for bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Such bacteria are estimated to cause about 5 million deaths a year globally, 50,000 in the US.

Pg 242
According to the FDA, Mercury could be quite high in waters polluted by industrial emissions. As a result, predatory fish such as shark, swordfish and albacore tuna could contain amounts above levels considered safe.

Pg 298
You pay for dairy foods in at least three ways: directly at the supermarket, indirectly through taxes that support subsidies to mega-dairies, and also indirectly through tax-supported subsidies to the producers of commodities like corn and soybeans used for feed.

Pg 348
Lutein, like beta-carotene, is fat-soluble; it has to be eaten with fat to be absorbed. Put some olive oil on your spinach, and its lutein will be absorbed just as well.

Pg 411
In the early 2000s, Great Britain’s Food Standards Agency induced food companies to agree to a slow but steady reduction of salt in their products. The result was spectacular; as salt in the food supply declined so did salt intake, blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. But in 2010, Britain elected a more conservative government, which handed over responsibility for improved nutrition to the food industry. The initiative ended and the United Kingdom has seen no further decline in salt intake, and a return to previous levels of hypertension and stroke.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great deal of effort went into this book. The author tried hard to tell us everything about eating, food, agriculture, and the food industry. I appreciate and respect her hard work.
Just -- don't depend on this book to tell you what you need to know in order to eat healthfully. Interesting information aside, her bottom-line advice -- limit meats, avoid fats, stick to plants as much as you can -- is wrong for my system.
I've had my own journey. I had to unlearn and then relearn everything I was taught about nutrition. I had to refuse the standard advice from my doctor (a statin), plus about 80% of the advice on the bookshelves.
By keeping track of my own system, via a scale, body fat measurements, and - especially - twice-daily blood testing - I learned that animal protein is good for me. Healthy fats are satiating. The body needs cholesterol and healthy fats (not deep fried anything, but simply good fats, such as butter, lean animal proteins, and olive oil), and that sugar, processed carbs, and ultra-processed foods are the real problems in most people's diet.
Instead of avoiding meat, I began by eliminating sugars and sugar substitutes, processed carbohydrates, ultra-processed foods, fake foods, fake sugars, fake fats, and vegetable oils.
Over a year, I experimented and tested myself every day. After three months, I saw real change in my cholesterol. It took a bit longer to radically improve my blood sugar. Now at the end of the year, I've lost 20 pounds and my blood sugar is now normal for my age. Having done nothing whatsoever for my cholesterol (no low-fat anything, and no statin), it fell even more dramatically than my blood sugar - simply by eliminating sugars, excessive carbs, vegetable oils and ultra-processed foods. Starting with the blood sugar was a game-changer for my cholesterol.
Always consider -- what did our bodies evolve to eat? Big Food wants you to eat their processed foods and powders, and Big Pharma wants you on a statin. But statins are known to cause blood sugar problems, and they artificially lower cholesterol, which has not been proved to lower the risk of heart attacks. What causes unhealthy levels, I now believe, is the inflammation caused by sugars. carbohydrates, and fake foods.
Nestle has worked hard on this book. Twice. I hate to critique something that obviously is a labor of love. But what she knows is what she's been taught, and what she was taught looks a lot like what most of us were taught. It was wrong for me, pushed by people who wanted to sell us products. (There is no money in pushing vegetables, fruits, olive oils, lean proteins, and eggs.)
You can learn interesting things from Nestle's book, but maybe take the bottom-line advice with a grain of salt. You're better off to read something from Dr. Catherine Shanahan, who, despite eschewing fruits, which I don't do, has a better bead on what in our diet bedevils us all. Shanahan, Dr. Casey Means, and Dr. Aseem Malhotra can get you started on healthier living.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

pg. 493
And what are we to make of a Toucan Sam–illustrated Carnation Breakfast Essentials Kellogg’s Froot Loops Flavored Nutritional Drink? This product’s website says it has “Key nutrients for immune support, 10 grams of protein, and 240 nutrient-rich calories for nutritional energy.” The first three ingredients are glucose syrup, milk protein concentrate, and sugar, for 41 grams of carbohydrate but only 15 from added sugars. […] Glucose syrup is the same as corn syrup; its little chains of glucose count as carbohydrates, not added sugars. This drink may have “only” 25 percent of its calories from added sugars, but if glucose syrup counted, the percent would be 68. Clever. This “nutrient-packed” drink is vitamin-enriched candy in drinkable form.

pg. 499
As with infant formulas, marketing pet foods is challenging. Their nutrient contents are virtually identical. All complete-and-balanced pet foods must meet the same nutritional standards. The only thing manufacturers can do is to vary the sources of required nutrients, but cost considerations mean they all use similar ingredients. Anything other than a complete-and-balanced pet food has to be supplemented to provide essential nutrients. You have to read product labels carefully, which takes some doing.

pg. 500
At the risk of too much information, consider protein. Tests for it do not measure protein directly; they measure nitrogen (explaining why melamine could be substituted for gluten). An average protein is about 16 percent nitrogen by weight. To estimate protein, you multiply the nitrogen by 6.25 (which is 100/16).

pg. 553
If you want a whole grain bread, look for “100 percent” on the label, whole wheat flour as the first ingredient, and 2 grams of fiber per ounce. Anything else is a reconstituted white bread with pieces of whole grains added.

pg. 577
- All foods can fit into a healthful diet (you can eat anything you like, with no restrictions).
- There is no such thing as a good or a bad food (you can eat anything you like).
- The keys to healthful eating are variety, balance, and moderation (you can eat anything you like, anytime).
- The key to weight control is to move more (you don’t have to worry about what you eat).
When I hear such statements, singly or in combination, I see red flags. They have only one purpose: to defend the right of food companies to market their products regardless of consequences. In principle, all of these statements hold grains of truth, especially when followed by a qualification or “yes, but…” Overall, we would be better off eating vegetables, minimizing intake of ultra-processed foods, and being as active as we can. Those who intone such statements reveal their unwillingness to challenge the aggressive and sometimes unethical marketing practices of food companies. They

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

I requested a digital ARC of "What to Eat Now" because I have long admired Marion Nestle’s research, clarity, and persistence in telling uncomfortable truths about the modern food system. She has been a steady, trustworthy voice for decades, and her work continues to shape how I think about food, health, and consumer choice.

I’ve tried to eat well since middle school, and while I’m certainly human (baked goods with chocolate will always be my weakness), books like this are genuinely motivating. Nestle doesn’t shame or preach. Instead, she equips readers with knowledge, about how food is produced, marketed, packaged, and sold, and lets that knowledge do the work.

This book is especially compelling because it focuses not just on what we eat, but on where and how we shop. Nestle examines the modern grocery store as a reflection of corporate consolidation, marketing power, and shifting consumer behavior. I live in a city where it takes multiple stores to get everything I need, and for a while I assumed that was a local issue. Reading this book made it clear that it’s not—it’s happening everywhere.

Her discussion of store brands replacing national brands was eye-opening. I had heard this was happening, but I didn’t realize the scale or the implications. Even more striking was her analysis of how COVID-19 reshaped grocery stores, from supply chains to product placement, with more shelf space devoted to items favored by paid shoppers and delivery algorithms rather than everyday cooks. Much of what she describes mirrors what I’ve noticed firsthand, but hadn’t fully connected until reading this book.

Like many of Nestle’s works, "What to Eat Now" is both fascinating and a little frightening. It makes you more aware of how much influence large food corporations have over what appears on shelves, and how that shapes our choices, often without us realizing it. At the same time, it reinforces the value of paying attention, reading labels, and making intentional decisions whenever possible.

This is absolutely a book I plan to purchase on Kindle so I can highlight and revisit sections that stood out to me. If you care about food, grocery shopping, public health, or the realities of the modern food system, this is well worth reading.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with a digital ARC to read and review.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

I have long respected the author for being willing to stand up to the food companies and government to tell some needed truths. This newly updated and revised book, however, felt very ambivalent, with the answer to her own question about what to eat often equating to, "I don't eat healthy either so go ahead and eat the bad food, just try not to eat too much."

That isn't to say that there isn't some great information here, nicely updated since COVID upended things quite a bit in the food industry (not to mention the current political climate of repealing consumer safeties). With topics covering everything from meat to cat food, you'll get a good idea of the chances you (and your pets) take with health. There is less focus on environment or people/animal welfare (e.g., slaughterhouse workers or livestock).

And yet, despite all the good information, the tone feels very wishy washy apologist in nature.
It makes it hard to trust or want to follow the advice of someone who can't even follow it herself - be it avoiding extremely unhealthy ultra processed food or meals cooked/heated up in stores that may have questionable hygiene. It felt like each chapter ended with, "don't eat this but I love it and do, so I try not to have too much of it but enjoy!"

I guess the point of the book is to help you make decisions to eat better/safer - even when the author doesn't. Kind of a mixed message. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Cherryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

** Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review **

What to Eat Now by Marion Nestle is an insightful guide that tackles the ever-evolving landscape of food choices in America. As someone who tries to make informed decisions about what I consume, I found Nestle's updated perspective on food shopping, especially considering the last two decades of changes in the food industry, to be particularly valuable. Her deep dive into "techno foods" and the rise of food delivery services offers a timely overview, prompting a good look at how our eating habits are influenced by modern conveniences. The aisle-by-aisle tour of the supermarket, infused with discussions on nutrition, food safety, and ethical considerations, provided a comprehensive framework that was genuinely thought-provoking.

While the book offers a wealth of well-researched information, my experience with it was somewhat mixed. On one hand, I appreciated the sheer breadth of topics covered and the detailed analysis of the American food system. On the other, I felt some of the advice could be a bit ambivalent at times, and the length of the book, while comprehensive, occasionally made it feel a bit dense. Additionally, I wished for a deeper exploration into how socioeconomic factors and wealth distribution significantly impact food access and choices for many. Despite these points, it's undeniably a thoroughly researched book that provides valuable insights for anyone trying to navigate the complexities of modern eating.

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent, in depth look at American food and the companies that produce it. It’s extremely thorough and walks you through everything from cereals to bottled water to baby food.

Nestle is an expert in her field and has been for years, but at times her age really showed in this book. She talks about the old days a bit too often and she has some attitudes typical of her generation. She doesn’t have any real opinions about things that matter a lot to many modern nutritionists like prioritizing organic, avoiding GMOs, eating grass fed, consuming more fiber, consuming healthy fats, eating foods high in anthocyanins and antioxidants, and so much more. She even says almost everyone eats too much protein (even vegans) and that is not necessarily true especially as we age and need more protein. None of this is her forte and she really does sound at times like your intelligent grandmother who tells you what she’s read and what other people have told her.

All that said, this is a really important read about how food companies operate and why you should avoid almost all of them. Eat fresh, real, home cooked food. If you don’t know why it matters so much, you really do need to read this book.

I read an advance copy of this book via netgalley.

[Chris Almeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really the ultimate catalog for the last couple decades worth of Agrifood companies successfully laundering their reputations without fundamentally changing their production or distribution models by lobbying for Swiss cheese (no pun intended) regulations they can easily sidestep.

Marion doesn’t seem to be as interested in peripheral peasant farm labor, contemporary migrant slave labor, or even sustainable agriculture as I would like her to be—I didn’t see the terms food sovereignty or agroecology at all—but this is a good book. If you want to know more or less what you should be eating or what you can get at the grocery store without fucking yourself, you will find answers here.

She also sometimes goes on these long passages where she very thoroughly explains a basic common sense idea. For example, she tells a story about how she went to the grocery store and saw premade salads in a cooled shelf you could take out and buy. She lets us know that some of them are going bad because the store didn’t pull them in time. She also lets us know that sometimes food service workers come to work sick and then they get you sick.

But with that aside this really is an informative, meticulously researched book and I think you should read it.

[K. East · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never have I encountered a book title that is so inaccurately reflected the book contents. If you are looking for advice on what is safe/healthy/wise to eat now, then this book will be of very little help. Ms. Nestle is clearly an expert in her field of nutrition but this book primarily offers her conclusions about current research into food and eating coupled with the politics of food and eating -- and 99% of it is negative. I have no quarrel with her conclusions because I do my own research and this book does a fairly decent job of summing up the current status of food in America [which is actually pretty bleak]. But nowhere did I find much [any?] useful advice or guidance on "what to eat now". Despite this book's incredible length -- 700+ pages -- I did read through all but the chapters for children and pets, because I currently have neither. It is an interesting chat about the power of the food marketing entities and the lack of real oversight by the FDA and EPA and other government agencies tasked with keeping our food supply safe. But I think I'll continue to take my guidance from Michael Pollan: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

[Donna Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book and well worth the time I spent reading this very long book.
I must admit it made me very cynical about buying food in numerous places!

The best way to summerize this book is that most of the food found in grocery stores, other than the produce section, are made by companies that want you to buy foods that are inexpensive to produce and will make them a good profit.

Another theme that is repeated throughout the book is that the more processed a product is, the less healthy it probably is for you.

The author, who is not related to the Nestle company, is not someone who is against all snack foods. She just believes in moderation in the more "ultra-processed" foods

Most companies make claims that "may" or may not be based on scientific studies. There's a lot of truth stretching going on. Also, they go by the rule of marketing: The more you see, the more you buy. Basically their goal is to get you eating more and when you gain weight, lecture you that it is your personal responsibility the not eat so much.

Learning to read the nutrition labels is the best way to navigate whether you should or should not buy a product.

[Lynne Pirnat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very comprehensive book on how food systems operate to make us less healthy, people and the climate, and the failure of government to make them stop, or even to cut back. In fact, government subsidies do much to perpetuate the broken system. What does it mean that farms are consolidating in terms of power? What does it mean that grocery stores have been consolidating, and support a number of unhealthy practices, such as shelf leasing? What does it mean that these food corporations are more beholden to their shareholders than to humanity? As much information as this book provides, there are still many questions to be answered here. In the meantime, mere mortals are tasked with standing up to these policies. We are the David to the food systems Goliath. Read the labels, prepare and eat food at home. Sort out where best to use your purchasing power, I really like the last part of the book where the author muses about what if, with suggestions like supermarkets promoting the healthiest products, or Wall Street bankers rewarding corporate social responsibility.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

🌱 I’ve always had an interest in picking up Dr. Marion’s work, as she was involved in a lot of the documentaries and readings featured in my education for my degree in sustainability. I found “What to Eat Now” to be helpful in deeply explaining the food industry and its US regulating bodies, marketing and labeling, calories, nutrients, and the “behind the scenes” of the mass growing and selling of food. It also contains Marion’s recommendations to the general consumer based on her experience in the industry.

This book is scientific but approachable in its language, meaning that it was a slower, denser read but ultimately didn’t leave me overwhelmed. I recommend this book if you want to increase your consumer awareness regarding what you eat. After reading this I definitely find myself looking at food labelling and marketing a lot closer, which I appreciate. Thank you to Marion Nestle and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. 🌱

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t actually finish this book but I read over half so I’m counting it. I didn’t really gain any knowledge I didn’t already have from reading this and it has so much unnecessary filler. Our food systems are sketchy AT BEST, which I already knew. I don’t know how anyone eats beef knowing what we know about its environmental impact and the fact that most beef is pumped full of antibiotics and hormones.

Claude gave me this summary and I 100000% stand behind this so I’m giving this book 3 stars: The food industry is designed to sell you the most profitable foods, not the healthiest ones, and nearly every confusing nutrition claim, misleading label, or supermarket layout trick exists to serve that goal. Eat minimally processed whole foods, mostly plants, don’t eat too much, and be skeptical of everything marketed to you.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I need to stop reading books on food systems though bc they make me insane.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

In What To Eat Now, Marion Nestle gives an 'aisle by aisle' guide of the food in supermarkets. She goes into detail about nutrition and health, as well as food politics and marketing, on foods and drinks ranging from organic vegetables to meat, bottled water and soft drinks.

This feels like a very comprehensive text. There is so much information that it is probably best used to pick up and read the chapters that interest you at a given time, although reading from beginning to end is fascinating and offers a lot of insight into the food industry.

The book does focus on American food systems, although I'm sure a lot of the information can be applied to other countries as well. Reading as someone not from America, it is interesting to see the differences and similarities between supermarkets there vs. where I live.

Thanks to NetGalley for a review copy.

[Melissa Charbonneau Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marion Nestle is a legend and I appreciate her work so much. I think of she and Michael Pollan as our two most valuable resources for cutting through the noise of our food system. They both distill down core principles everyone should be aware of so well. I’m really glad she came out with this new edition. I do think key takeaways could have been conveyed in a far smaller volume, as some parts were dense and a bit of a slog to get through. The book is comprehensive in the extreme. Every part held some value nonetheless, and so many of my own disparate and vague (but nagging) questions about food and our food system were addressed. An important and super current resource all around.

Pro tip: listen to the audiobook and take a walk while you do it, you’ll feel better about all the calories you’ve already consumed that day since you’ll be burning some of them off while “reading”.

[Eileen Breseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read her book What to Eat in 2006 which was a real wakeup call for how the grocery store layout affects your shopping choices. This update (27 hours of audio!) takes you aisle by aisle, including pet food, cannabis enhancements, vegan,soy, gluten free and the plethora of substitute products. You can learn a lot from this book but you may find it rage inducing as over the last 20 years, changes have exploded to get more Wall Street market share of your dollar. More calories, more varieties of every flavor imaginable, more ultra processed, quicker ready-to-go premade meals, more fat, more sugar more salt, more targeting kids in the early years. No wonder there's an obesity crisis in this country! This is a no nonsense look at how to be your own advocate in the world of food choices.

[Maude · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fascinating, although a pretty long and arduous read. This book covers everything, from PFASs in your bottled water to antibiotics in your grocery store-bought ground meats, and includes a thorough list of references at the end to back up any and all claims made by the author. A must-read for north-americans looking to understand the food environment around them, and how to navigate it better for themselves and their family.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance reader copy.

[Carol Surges · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extensive, aisle by aisle look at our food system, primarily the corner grocery store. The author brings her research to life with lots of anecdotes from her personal experience grocery shopping, cooking and eating in NYC. Her chatty style can get in the way for someone wanting to get to the point, but the book is neatly organized, and chapter headings will steer readers to the information they may be most interested in.

A definite read as U.S. consumers becomes more aware of the damage ultra-processed foods cause.

[Kathy Arnos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book that appealed to the scientist in me. It’s very long, even not counting the appendices, but incredibly well-documented and well-written. Basically, the author goes aisle by aisle through the grocery store describing the science, regulations (or lack there of), politics and business of food. I learned so much, it made my head spin. I did skim several chapters I wasn’t so interested in, such as pet food, babyfood and supplements. The chapters that were most interesting to me including bottled water and seafood.

[Zara · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7. A very dense book that feels like a reference book to keep handy. But the basic message is: avoid ultra processed food as much as you can, eat fresh home cooked food as much as possible, and do not believe health fads or companies on their health claims because they are just tryinf to sell you crap. I appreciate the systems analysis the author takes to basically say — corporate greed is incentivizing companies to poison us slowly with food that is convenient, void of nutrients, and harmful to our bodies, our communities, and our environment.