From Michael Pollan
From USA Today
A new book, "Eat, Drink, Vote," has more than 250 cartoons that take a humorous look at food topics.
When it comes to diet, weight and food politics in this country, cartoons often make the messages easier to swallow.
Cartoons and comics can convey "complicated conceptual information at a glance, and if they are good, make it funny, pointed, sharp, ironic and sometimes even sarcastic," says Marion Nestle, a longtime nutrition professor at New York University and veteran consumer advocate. "In one drawing, cartoonists can convey not only what the idea is about, but what they think about it."
Nestle shares more than 250 of her favorite cartoons and comics in her new book, Eat, Drink, Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics, (Rodale Books, $18.99) created in collaboration with The Cartoonist Group.
For years, Nestle has hounded the food industry about its marketing strategies, which she detailed in her 2002 book, Food Politics. In 2006, she detailed how to grocery shop for a healthful diet in What to Eat, and in 2012 she discussed the latest science on what causes people to be overweight in Why Calories Count, written with Malden Nesheim.
Nestle believes that the obesity problem is this country is fostered by a food environment that encourages people to eat more often, in more places and in larger amounts than is good for maintaining a healthy weight.
Marion Nestle is a nutrition professor at New York University.About a third of adults in this country are obese, which is roughly 35 or more pounds over a healthy weight. A third of children and teens are overweight or obese. Obesity increases the risk of many diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer.
Beginning in the 1980s when obesity rates in this country started to climb, food became more widely available with the proliferation of fast-food places and the increase in portion sizes, she says. People started eating outside of the home more often and snacking more frequently, Nestle says.
She says the current food environment results from the need of food companies not only to make a profit but to report an increase in profits to Wall Street every 90 days — and do so in a highly over-abundant and fiercely competitive marketplace. To lose weight, she says, people have to eat less, but eating less is terrible for business. Hence: politics.
Nestle says there are many examples of what she considers food politics run amok. One case in point: The U.S. Department of Agriculture established new nutrition standards for school lunches that went into effect in the 2012-2013 school year. But bowing to pressure from food companies, "Congress insisted that the USDA count the tomato paste on pizza as a serving of vegetables," Nestle says.
"It's ridiculous to have Congress micromanaging school food rules. Several cartoons in the book make that point brilliantly."
About the book, Nestle says: "I want these cartoons to inspire readers to become active in food politics, personally and politically. You can buy food at farmers markets, go to grocery stores that sell healthier foods, support locally grown food and organic food, support animal welfare.
"There are loads of ways to choose foods and diets that will be healthier for people and the planet. Everyone who's interested can join groups that are working for policies that will make healthy food choices the easy choices."
Vote with your fork, she says. "Even better, vote with your vote!"
written by Nanci Hellmich
From the Chicago Tribune
Marion Nestle has a funny bone?
"Of course! Doesn't everybody?" replies the influential New York University professor, nutrition and public policy expert, blogger and award-winning author of such books as "What to Eat" and "Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health."
Maybe everyone does have a funny bone — trouble is, you don't see it displayed all that often when the debate turns to such politically charged issues as nutrition, obesity and public policy. At least not until now.
Nestle's new book, "Eat, Drink, Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics" (Rodale, $18.99), pairs her powerfully clear prose with more than 250 cartoons and comics to outline the hot button issues of today, from product labeling to genetic engineering to schoollunches. The combination is both serious and seriously funny.
"I call this book 'food politics lite' — L-I-T-E," Nestle says. "It's a quick way to find out what the issues are."
Cartoonists, she adds, "slice right down" to the crux of an issue. Nestle has used food-themed cartoons for years in lectures, finding they can help audiences grasp a complex food issue more easily. She has also tried to incorporate cartoons into her books.
Nestle's text and the cartoons are, in her words, "tightly linked" in "Eat, Drink, Vote." They are indeed. Little red arrows help direct readers from the point she's making in words to the pertinent cartoon, a number of which offer an opinion different from hers. Nestle is OK with that.
"I wrote this book to lay out this stuff and let people make their own decisions," she says. "I hope this book can reach a large audience, an audience with a sense of humor."
written by Bill Daley
From San Francisco Chronicle
Is food political? Yes it is, as Food & Wine section readers know from "Food Matters," Marion Nestle's exclusive monthly column, above, in The Chronicle.
Everyone eats, and politics affects what people eat. That's the overarching theme of what Nestle, an internationally recognized authority on food, nutrition and public policy, documents in her column and in her many award-winning books.
Now, with her new book, "Eat Drink Vote," Nestle takes a different approach to the subject, using editorial cartoons and other drawings to capture complex ideas in a nutshell.
That starts with a pizza cartoon on the book cover.
After intense industry lobbying, the funding authorization for the 2012 U.S. school lunch nutrition standards wound up counting the dabs of tomato paste on pizza as a serving of vegetables. Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Mike Peters captured the absurdity by turning the USDA Food Pyramid for healthy eating into a slice of pizza.
Nestle worked with the Cartoonist Group, which includes about 50 editorial cartoonists and other illustrators, to illustrate key points. She divides the book into 10 chapters, with 250 cartoons.
Topics are wide-ranging: food production, what to feed children, food marketing, food safety, hunger and food issues in international relations, animal welfare, regulations and changing the food system.
The cartoons make it easy to page through the book and take in complex matters in short, thought-provoking bites. And to find very pointed humor in even the most serious issue.
written by Miriam Morgan
From DietsInReview.com
Read the full review here: From Diets In Review
From Mother Nature Network
"Marion Nestle's latest book marries political cartoons with the oh-so frustrating topic of food politics."
"If you’d like to wrap your head around the basics of some of today’s food politics issues so you can be a better informed voter, “Eat Drink Vote†is a place to start. The issues are explained from various points of view, and the political cartoons add a dimension to the understanding of those issues that plain text couldn’t do without hundreds of words."
Read the full review here: written by Robin Shreeves
From FoodArts.com
By Gary Tucker
From ItinerantLibrarian.com
"The book includes an introduction that is followed by ten chapters discussing a broad range of topics, such as: the American food system, food production, food safety, and the food movement. The author strives to explain why these issues and more are significant and why the average consumer needs to care. The cartoons do help in illustrating some of the complex ideas, plus at times they do add a bit of humor to serious topics. Food politics should interest everyone because, as the author tells us in her introduction, "everyone eats." Add to that the fact that corporations have an interest in making sure that people keep eating, regardless of the consequences, and it becomes clear why politics are so relevant and important."
Read the full review here: written by Angel Rivera