Food Politics

FoodNavigator-USA.com did a special edition “Where next for natural sweeteners?”  “Special editions are collections of previously published articles on topics of interest to this newsletter’s food industry readers.

Why do this?  The holy grail of food technology is to find a no-calorie sweetener that tastes as good as sugar, has no bitter aftertaste, and can be marketed as “natural” because it’s extracted from plants. Examples: Stevia extracted from leaves Monk fruit sweetener.

As with high fructose corn syrup, not everyone considers these sweeteners to be natural since they have to go through chemical processing steps.

Stevia is extracted from leaves with ethanol.  Whether this process can be considered natural is currently under debate in Europe.  Some European regulators prefer “extracted from a plant source.”

Here are some of the articles.  For the complete collection, click here.

Monk fruit sweetener firm: ‘We hear daily that people are looking for alternatives to stevia’

It might not have garnered as much publicity as stevia, but monk fruit (luo han guo) “has found a niche within the all-natural market but will hit mass market sooner than stevia in this space”, according to one leading supplier… Read

Tate & Lyle: Monk fruit sweetener attracting most interest in dairy and beverages

Dairy and beverages are proving the most popular application areas for monk fruit sweetener Purefruit, says Tate & Lyle… Read

Different processes, lower cost, better taste: Is stevia still on track for mainstream success?Taste issues and high cost repeatedly have been raised as possible obstacles to widespread acceptance of stevia-derived sweeteners, but one of the many new suppliers entering the market claims that these are no longer the hurdles they once were… Read

Steviol glycosides are not ‘all-natural’, says new class action lawsuitA class action lawsuit filed in California this week argues that steviol glycosides should not be considered natural, owing to the “chemical processing” sometimes used to extract them from the stevia leaf… Read

Stevia buyers beware: There are some ‘awful’ extracts out there…

While traders “jumping in and out of the stevia marketplace” are disrupting prices and standards by peddling some “awful” extracts, high-quality stevia suppliers in it for the long-haul will ultimately prosper, according to one leading player… Read

Stevia in snacks and baked goods – stealth, competition, and potential

While stevia is beginning to take off in a number of baked goods and snack categories in the US, Asian and South American markets, some other emerging ‘natural’ sweeteners look ready to take it on in the segment, claims Datamonitor… Read

Naturally-positioned sweeteners to lead market growth: Report

The US alternative sweeteners market will grow by 3.3% a year to reach about $1.4bn in 2015 – and naturally positioned sweeteners like stevia and agave nectar will lead the way, claims a new report from market research organization Freedonia… Read

Thanks to alert reader Glen for pointing out that the FDA already has a regulation for Corn Sugar in the Code of Federal Regulations, under food substances Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS).  CFR Section 184.1857 reads:

(a) corn sugar (C6H12O6, CAS Reg. No. 50-99-7), commonly called D-glucose or dextrose, is the chemical [alpha]-D-glucopyranose. It occurs as the anhydrous or the monohydrate form and is produced by the complete hydrolysis of corn starch with safe and suitable acids or enzymes, followed by refinement and crystallization from the resulting hydrolysate.

(b) The ingredient meets the specifications of the Food Chemicals Codex, 3d Ed. (1981), pp. 97-98 under the heading “Dextrose….”

(c) In accordance with 184.1(b)(1), the ingredient is used in food with no limitation other than current good manufacturing practice.

The Corn Refiners have just petitioned the FDA to be allowed to use the name Corn Sugar to apply to both glucose/dextrose and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).  But the existing definition seems to exclude HFCS.  While HFCS is about half glucose, it is also about half fructose, and its manufacture from corn starch requires one more enzyme.

A reminder about sugar chemistry:

• Glucose is the sugar in blood, and dextrose is the name given to glucose produced from corn but biochemically they are identical.
• Fructose is the principal sugar in fruit.  In fruit, it raises no issues because it is accompanied by nutrients and fiber.
• Sucrose is table sugar.  It is a double sugar, containing one part each of glucose (50%) and fructose (50%), chemically bound together.  Enzymes in the intestine quickly and efficiently split sucrose into glucose and fructose, which are absorbed into the body as single sugars.
• HFCS is made from corn starch.  It contains roughly equivalent amounts of glucose (45 to 58%) and fructose (42 to 55%).

HFCS raises several issues, health and otherwise:

• Quantity: the U.S. food supply provides to every American (all ages) about 60 pounds of sucrose and another 60 pounds of HFCS each year.  This is way more than is good for health.  Sugars of any kind provide calories but no nutrients.
• Fructose: increasing evidence suggests that the metabolism of fructose–which differs from that of glucose–is associated with abnormalities.  This means that it is best to reduce intake of fructose from table sugar as well as HFCS.
• Farm subsidies: these go to large corn producers and have kept down the cost of HFCS relative to that of sucrose.  The use of corn to make ethanol has raised the relative price of HFCS.
• Genetic modification: Most corn grown in the United States is genetically modified to resist insects or herbicides.

From a health standpoint, it makes no difference whether the sweetener is sucrose or HFCS.

As for agave sugar as a substitute: it can have much higher concentrations of fructose than either sucrose or HFCS but its labels do not give percentages so you have no way to know how much.

Given all this, what’s your guess about what the FDA will decide?

I wish I could answer all of the questions that come into Feedback or Comments, but I cannot except occasionally.  It’s a rainy day in New York and today seems to be one of those occasions.

Q: Does the caloric value of a food change when it’s cooked?  In his latest book, “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human,” Harvard Primatologist Richard Wrangham argues that cooking foods changes the available nutrient content and actually raises the available calories.

A:  The rules of physical chemistry tell us that matter cannot be destroyed or created so the number of calories available in a food does not change with temperature.  What can change is our ability to use (digest, absorb) the calories that are there as well as our desire to eat the foods.  Cooking makes the calories in potato starch more available, for example, but has hardly any effect on the calories in meat.  Both, in my opinion at least, taste better cooked.    But cooked or not, the calorie differences will be small and unlikely to account significantly for weight change.

The nutrient situation is also complicated.  Cooking destroys some nutrients (vitamin C is a good example) but makes others more available (beta-carotene).  This is another reason why nutritionists are always advising variety in food intake.  Variety applies to cooked and raw, as well.

Q.  Can you please explain what benefits, if any, there are in using a “natural” sweetener, e.g. agave, over regular sugar?  Are there any differences in terms of glucose/fructose makeup?

A.  Agave is more expensive so you probably won’t use as much of it.  Beyond that, it is higher in fructose than table sugar or honey.  This is because agave contains inulin, a polymer of fructose, which must be hydrolyzed (broken down by heat or enzymes) to fructose to make the sweetener.  It’s a processed sweetener requiring one hydrolysis step, requiring more processing than honey and less than high fructose corn syrup.  It has the same number of calories as any other sugar, about 4 per gram or 16 per teaspoon.

Q.  Also, you’ve written on a prior blog that fructose is “preferentially” metabolized into fat by the body.  Can you explain in more detail what that means?

A.  More and more evidence suggests that high amounts of fructose in the diet are not good for health.  Fructose occurs naturally in fruit and nobody worries about that because fruits don’t contain all that much and the sugar is accompanies by vitamins, minerals, and fiber that are well worth eating.  Honey, table sugar, and high fructose corn syrup (a misnomer) are about 50% each glucose and fructose.  Glucose and fructose are metabolized differently and some investigators believe that excessive amounts of fructose stress metabolism in ways that encourage fat deposition.  Eating a lot of sugars of any kind is not a great idea, which is why there are so many concerns about soft drinks these days.

Q.  I would appreciate some comments about the “Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease.

A.  The study concludes:  

A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD [coronary heart disease] or CVD [cardiovascular disease]. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat.

This is a review of previous epidemiological studies (not clinical trials).  These fail to find a correlation between consumption of saturated fat and heart disease.  This could be because there is no correlation or there is one but they can’t find it.  My interpretation: even if there is one, it is likely to be small.

I am increasingly convinced that studies of single nutrients – sugar, fructose, saturated fat, or even omega-3s – will give complicated results when removed from their dietary context.  People who eat foods containing a lot of sugars or animal fats eat and behave differently than people who do not, but not so differently that health differences will show up in the kinds of studies scientists are currently able to do.

Keep in mind: nutrition science is exceedingly difficult to do because there are so many factors in foods that affect health and so many behavioral, economic, and social factors that affect what people eat.

All of this is why I find nutrition so interesting but I can understand why others might find it frustrating.

This page is somewhat disorganized in that I now put occasional print, audio, and video interviews, which used to be separated, together by year.  The section at the very end is called Controversies; it is where I post letters from critics.  Scroll down to find whatever you are looking for.  Media interviews and reviews for Why Calories Count are on the page for that book.  For podcasts and videos of presentations, look under Appearances and scroll down for Past Appearances.

Interviews and presentations

2013

May 12  Interview on Heritage Radio with Katy Keiffer on the tenth anniversary of Food Politics.

May 10 Interview on WRVO radio with Lorraine Rapp and Linda Lowen on food labels.

May 4   Report on the Food Book Fair panel discussion of food companies’ role in food systems.

April 28  Interview with Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC about GMOs.  And here’s the second section.

April 8 Interview with Robin Davis of The Columbus Dispatch about food politics.

March 28 Interview with Nevada Public Radio on whether food stamps should only pay for “good” food.

February 26  Interview with KPCC on the horsemeat scandal.

February 8  Interview with Mauro Rosati of L’Unità on obesità infantile.

February 7 TV Interview with Aaron Task, Yahoo Finance, with Peter Pringle on A Place at the Table (hunger in America)

January 28  NPR interview with Dan Charles about Derek Yach and PepsiCo

January 26  Mrs. Green’s World with Kelly King

January 16  Interview with BeverageDaily.com on Coca-Cola’s “anti-obesity” ads.

January 14 Online interview with Lauroly on World Wise Beauty

January 14  Video interview with Meghan Telpner‘s Making Love in the Kitchen

January 10  Video interview on Star Talk, co-hosts Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Eugene Mirman, with Anthony Bourdain, about the science of cooking (sort of).

2012

December 16  Interview with Katy Keiffer on Heritage Radio, with Cristin Couzens, on sugar.

November 25  Interview with Lynne Rossetto Kaspar at the Splendid Table on the farm bill

November 24  Interview with Rena Nagarajan in the Times of India: “Give them food, not nutrient-packed pills.”

November 17 Interview with Maggie Fox of NBC News on the demise of Twinkies.

November 13 Video interview with NewsHouse at Syracuse University (6.40 minutes).

October 12  Interview with Childhood Obesity (21012;8:421-422) on Kids Don’t Need Kids’ Foood.

September undated  Podcast interview with Trevor Jackson of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on corporate influences on obesity.

September 10  New York Times blog debate on whether organics are worth it.

September 7 Radio interview with Brian Lehrer on whether organics are worth it.

August 9 Radio interview with Patt Morrison, KPCC, on Diet Coke’s 30th birthday.

August 6  Interview with Alexandra Zissu on Abesmarket.com about the meaning of “natural.”

June 28  Interview on Food Sleuth radio with Melinda Hemmelgarn, KOPN.  Also on Public Radio Exchange and on iTunes.

June 22  Review in the Daily Meal of my speech on the farm bill.

June 20  CBS TV interview on pizza companies objections to menu labeling

June 20 BBC TV interview on the people who made us fat (I’m in there someplace)

June 20  Interview on Huffington Post with Danielle Nierenberg based on an interview in a book produced by Barilla. There may be some audio with this too.

June 14  Video interview with Aaron Task on Yahoo about who profits from food stamps.

June 6 NPR All Things Considered on Disney’s announcement on kids’ marketing.

June 4 Brownfield Ag News interview with Tom Steever on FDA’s decision not to allow HFCS to be called corn sugar

June 1  Heritage radio clips on obesity.

May 23 Radio interview with Leonard Lopate WNYC, with Peter Kaminsky

May 21 Print interview with Revital Federbush for an Israeli women’s magazine, mostly about dairy foods I’m told (it’s in Hebrew, which I cannot read, alas).

May 8  Interview with Eliot Spitzer on Viewpoint

April 15 Interview with Katy Kieffer on Heritage Radio’s Straight–No Chaser.

April 14 Interview with SunnySideUp radio, Lexington, KY.

April 13  Interview with CBS News online: 10 myths about calories, busted.

April 11  Interview with Dr. Joe Schwarcz in Montreal (podcast)

April 11  Interview about Why Calories Count on Taste Matters with Mitchell Davis on Heritage Radio

April 5  Interview Q and A for the NYU/Steinhardt website.

March 21  Radio interview with KPCC ‘s Patt Morrison on Sugar v. Corn Refiners

March 9  Audio interview with Ben Greenfield on food politics.

February 21  Interview with Cornell Chronicle about calorie talk.

February 1: Interview with the Boston Globe on the farm bill.

January 16: Interview with Louisa Kasden, Boston Phoenix Stuff Magazine, on my upcoming talk on the farm bill at the Boston Museum of Science.

January 5: NPR interview with Joy Wang on cleaning out your kitchen.

January 2012:  Interview with Juliann Schaffer in Today’s Dietitian.

2011
November 11   Splendid Table with Lynn Rossetto Kaspar, radio interview on the farm bill (starts at minute 7:05)

October 28  Panel discussion at Grand Central Station on the occasion of Consumer Reports’ 75th birthday (with Urvashi Rangan, Willie Neuman, and Bill Marler).

October 15  Radio interview with KCRW’s Even Kleiman on corn sugar.

October 2  Radio interview with Patrick Martins and Katy Kieffer on food politics,  Heritage Radio, the Main Course

September 22  Interview in the Lethbridge Herald (Alberta, Canada) on lecture at the University of Lethbridge

September 19  Interview with NourishLife about food politics

September 13 My politics of food lecture to UC Berkeley’s Edible Education 101 course is available in video online.

September 1  KCRW Warren Olney on “blah chicken, bland tomatoes (Barry Estabrook), and the food revolution (me).

Fall    Interview with Sarah Eva Kamenetz, dining editor, Washington Square News, the Food Issue.  My interview is on page 25.

August 28 Radio interview with Radio Health Journal on health claims.

August 25 Entrevista con Flor Codagnone in Cukmi (Argentina), in Spanish.

August 20   Reviews of Food Politics and What to Eat at Weekend Eating Reading with Eat with Joy

August 5 Interview with David Freeman of CBS News on a study of the high cost of produce.

August 2  Interview with Consumer Reports about McDonald’s Happy Meals makeover

August   Qualigeo-EU, first issue. My interview about food safety begins on page 70.

July 19    Radio interview with Ed Dodge’s Joy’s of Healthy Living on food politics

July 19 Video interview with Independent Sources on marketing to kids.

July 6  CNN Eatocracy video on eating on the subway

June 20  Interview with Jennifer Abbasi of EverydayHealth: “Delicious propaganda: 12 fascinating food posters.”

June 11 Interview with Evan Kleiman, Good Food radio, on food guides and the new food plate (scroll down to find it).

June 8 Radio interview with Steve Boss on KRUU Great Taste on MyPlate, the German E. coli outbreak, and other issues.

June 3 Video interview with the irreverent Mo Rocca of CBS about the USDA’s new food plate.

June 2 Interview with Scientific American about the new USDA food icon

April 7  Interview with Modeled Behavior about food dyes

April 6 Radio interview with Caryn Hartglass on It’s All About Food

March 28  Time Magazine’s “140 Best Twitter Feeds” includes @marionnestle

March 28  Interview with Michael Moss on school food in Philadelphia.  I’m in the video.

March  NYU Alumni Magazine about the Fales food studies book collection
March 9  ABC Nightline on Heart Attack Grill

March 2  Melanie Warner BNet on my post about HFCS

February 8 The editor of Scientific American, Mariette DiChristina, interviews me for a Google Science Fair project that I’m judging next summer.

February 1  Unexpected appearance on Colbert, about Walmart’s food initiatives (via ABC News clip)

January 20 NPR interview with Robert Siegel on All Things Considered about the Walmart announcement

January 20  ABC News interview about the Walmart announcement

2010

• November 19 Interview with Al Jazeera for a Fault Line program on “Fast food, fat profits: obesity in America (my 10 seconds starts at about minute 15).
• November 2  Interview with Dov Hirsh, Crop to Cuisine
• November 5  Interview with Burlington Free Press (note photo!)
• October 24  Heritage Radio with Patrick Martins, Katy Keiffer, and Joan Gussow
• September 4 Interview with Helge Hellberg on An Organic Conversation.
• August 1 Interview with Guy Raz on NPR All Things Considered, on raw milk.
• August 13 Interview with Brian Lehrer on NPR about listeners’ meals
• July 15 Interview with Maria Rodale on Huffington Post
• July 9, 13 Annie Corrigan of Earth Eats did two interviews, part 1 on July 9 and part 2 on July 13.
• Summer 2010: Q and A with Donna Stokes, World Ark (Heifer International):10.
• July 3 Interview about food politics on the Kathleen Show.
• June 27 Heritage Radio  interview with Patrick Martins and Katy Kiefer.
• June 15 China Radio International.
• May 7 Fox and Friends interview about chocolate infant formula.
• April 3 Good Food interview with Evan Kleiman about agave.
• April 1: Interview with Katherine Hobson of U.S. News about the latest research on dietary fats.
• March 10 The Kathleen Show on food politics.
• March 6 Good Food interview with Evan Kleiman about soda taxes.
  March 3 CNN interview with Maggie Lake about organics
• February 22: Interview with Lori Bongiorno on Yahoo!Green about the safety of bagged salads.
• February 13 Food writers’ conference panel on academic food writing.
• February 26, 2010 Podcast of talk to the Girls Night Out series at the New York Academy of Sciences
• February 19: Interview about appearance at the Louisiana State University School of Public Health.
• January 20 Interview with NPR’s Takeaway on Mayor Bloomberg’s salt initiative.
• January 22 Interview with The Big Think.

2009

• April 13  Interview with Obama Foodorama about what the Obamas should feed their new puppy
• March 15  Chat with participants on Firedoglake Book Salon, hosted by Christy Hardin Smith
• March 12  Interview with Beth Bader on Green Options: Eat Drink Better, “Food safety: ask the expert”
• January 22   Interview with Lori Bongiorno on Yahoo! Green: “Eat safe food:  follow these tips
• January 19, 2009  Interview about food politics on Crop to Cuisine, Dov Hirsch, KVNU radio, Boulder CO
• May 24, 2009  Interview with Sound Medicine about high fructose corn syrup
• April 13, 2009 Interview with HearSay’s Cathy Lewis about food safety (with FDA’s David Acheson), WHRV-FM/WHRO Norfolk VA.
• August 6 ’09  CBS interview on Smart Choices program
• June ’09    Visit to the Brooklyn Food Coop with Joel Tomar Levin (scroll down to see video).
• June ’09 (possibly)  Office interview with Consumer (something unreadable) about current issues.  This is a copressed mp4 file.
• May 1, ’09  Video of lecture at Gel conference.<!–[endif]–>

2008

• November 23 Interview with Jane Brody, New York Times, about home cooking
• November 4 Interview with Time magazine about the implications of the pet food recall for melamine in China
• October 17 Interview with Adam Voiland of US News and World Report about 10 things the food industry doesn’t want you to know
• September 26 Interview with Mother Jones, September/October 2008 issue
• August 26 interview with Jonathan, who blogs at WastedFood.com.
• July 7, Interview with Jennifer Salerno about “green” food choices in the online version of Food and Wine.
• June 30 Interview with Claudette Vaughan on Abolitionist-Online about Food Politics.
• March 20 Interview with Amy Ramos in Miller-McCune magazine.
• March 12 Interview with Adriana Velez on www.foodbuzz.com.
• January 20, 2008 Interview with Lori Dorfman in the January issue of Health Promotion Practice.
• February 12 Kansas City: Kansas City Healthy Kids conference (keynote slide presentation)
• Women’s and Gender Studies Programs (lecture) See Toledo Blade account
• March 5 Santa Barbara, Q and A with Morgan Spurlock, Orfalea Fund Conference on school food
• Memorial lecture. See interview in Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
• April 4 Wesleyan, CT, Shasha seminar for human concerns (keynote–and here are the Wesleyan slides)
• June 3 Copenhagen, Nordic Nutrition Conference (plenary). Here’s the pdf of my slides. And the lecture is posted on Morten Strunge Meyers’ blog site as well as on YouTube.
• June 5 NYU, Fales library panel on bottled water. See report from panelist Maureen Clancy. These sessions usually are videorecorded.
• August 26 Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, 595 Market, 2nd Floor, book interview with Davia Nelson, Kitchen Sisters (5:30 p.m.)
• August 30 Slow Food Nation, San Francisco, panel on Building a New Food System: Policy and Planning (scroll down to get to video for this panel)
• November 14 New York, Food Theater Project with Anna Lappe. This follows a performance of Milk n’ Honey at the Lightbox, 80 Greenwich at Rector. And here’s a photo from the event.
• November 12 Panel discussion on the farm bill, Wagner School of Public Service, Puck Building (Lafayette at Houston), 2nd floor. Here is Wild Green Yonder’s take on it.
• March 7, 2008  Homeland Security Daily Wire, Interview about food safety
• February 6, 2008  Biologique Foods radio, two podcast interviews with TJ Harrington in Bloomington, MN, one on food politics and the other on what’s in your food.
• September 24, 2008 Interview with Public Radio International on food safety (melamine and Chinese infant formula)
• September 22, 2008  Interview on WBUR Here and Now, Boston, on food safety
  July 1, 2008 Interview with All Things Considered on NPR about New York City’s trans-fat ban.
• January 16, 2008  Radio interview: Dynamic Health” host Allart, Vancouver, B.C.’s Co-op Radio, CFRO 102.7 FM.
• CNN broadcast of “Fed Up: America’s Killer Diet“.  The transcript is also online 11/29/08
• Interview with Laura Flinders (and Arun Gupta and Peter Hoffman), Grit TV. It’s on how to eat well without going broke, and starts with a Monty Python clip on Spam 11/26/08
• Interview with Meet the Bloggers about food politics (done via computer camera) 11/21/08
• Video interview with CBS about the effects of the economic downturn on food choices 11/20/08
• CBS News interview about high fructose corn syrup 10/2/08
• Video interview (snippets) with CBS5, KPIX on melamine in Chinese infant formula 9/29/08
• CBS Evening News interview on genetically modified food labeling, Figuring Out What’s In Your Food 5/11/08

2007

• Interview with my avatar on food issues with Jimbo Hoyer on Second Life 10/11/07
• Interview with Marion Nestle by Shahar Smooha (in Hebrew). Also in English translation.  Haaretz 9/23/07
• Web MD interview about organic choices 8/10/07
• Food Industry magazine (Netherlands): Interview with Lucien Joppen (in English) 8/07
• Claims Are Like Pandora’s Box Elsevier Voedingsmiddelen Industrie (http://www.evmi.nl/) 8/07
• Why Are We Fat? The Courier Journal 4/11/07
• Marion Nestle: The Nutrition Guru Culinate 3/27/07
• Nutrition Expert to Speak Tonight at Ithaca College The Ithaca Journal 3/27/07
• The Basics; For Cats and Dogs, Life Is a Bowl Of The New York Times 3/25/07
• Wellness Warriors Take Action Nation’s Restaurant News 1/29/07
• Food Critic meatingplace magazine 1/07
• December 12, 2007 radio interview HealthTalk Live: How safe is our food? (click on December 12 entry)
• September 15, 2007 Dishing Up Nutrition radio interview on food politics (interviewer is Darlene Kvist).
• September 6, 2007 Canadian Broadcasting Corp: CBC Calling. Interview with Chef Michael Smith.
• September 5, 2007 Scientific American Podcast with Steve Mirsky. Because I am a Paulette Goddard professor at NYU, he sends along an article he wrote about Einstein’s experience with the gorgeous movie star.
• NPR Science Friday, panel on the farm bill with Michael Pollan and Sandor Ellix Katz 8/10/07
• Global Public Radio, Wake Up America interview with Tina Volpe  8/13/07
• Splendid Table radio interview 6/9/07
• Is Feeding a Family on Food Stamps Feasible? Weekend Edition, National Public Radio 5/19/07
• Charlie Rose science series: obesity and nutrition (with Paul Nurse, David Ludwig, Rudy Leibel, and Gina Kolata) 6/25/07
• Google staff lecture, Mountain View, CA. (see hour-long Video or 8-minute edit on YouTube) 5/8/07
• What to Eat: Personal Responsibility versus Social Responsibility University of Kentucky 3/13/07
• How to Buy Green Produce TreeHuggerTV.com 1/17/07

2006

• Dålig Kost en Politisk Fråga (Swedish) Svenska Dagbladet 11/25/06
• Sorting Through the Confusion in a Bag of Spinach Newsday.com 10/4/06
• Supermarket sleuth.  Interview with Katharine Mieszkowski of Salon.com, 6-12-06
• Conversation with Marion Nestle DefendingScience.org 5/12/06
• Interview with Marion Nestle PotreroHillParents.org 5/12/06
• The Skinny on Organic Food AARP Bulletin 5/06
• The Politics of Obesity: Interview with Dr Nestle Cambridge Medicine 2006
• Fighting the Battle of the Bulge Rotman Magazine Winter 2006
• E. Coli Outbreak Was Wake-Up Call for Food Safety Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio 10/23/06
• When To Go Organic The Intelligent Body 9/25/06
• Nutritionist Tackles Serious Business of ‘What to Eat’ All Things Considered 6/9/06
• Food Democracy and Healthy Choices: An Interview with Marion Nestle Bioneers 2006
• How to Find Green Fish TreeHuggerTV.com 9/26/06
• Interview with Charlie Rose about What to Eat 7/13/06
• How to Buy Green Milk TreeHuggerTV.com 7/10/06
• Marion Nestle Discusses What to Eat AOL: Diet & Fitness Coach 2006
• Town Hall Meeting Webcast Berkeley 4/13/06

2001 to 2005

• Manger: Simplicité et Modération d’Abord! Réseau Proteus 6/05
• James Beard: A 20th Century Revolution in American Foods The Food Section 5/10/05
• Under Fire The Leonard Lopate Show, National Public Radio 1/18/05
• The Politics of Obesity Prevention: Personal Responsibility versus Public Health The University of Minnesota School of Public Health 9/18/04
• The Politics of Food and Nutrition UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine 2/8/04
• Featured in the award winning documentary Super Size Me: Think about how food is marketed, , How much influence does the food industry have on government?
• Food Politics Q&A with Marion Nestle University of California School of Public Health Spring 2004
• Frontline: Diet Wars PBS 4/8/04
• Fast Food Nation The Leonard Lopate Show, National Public Radio 5/4/04
• Marion Nestle on Obesity: “Industry Talks but Doesn’t Walk” Food Engineering & Ingredients 4/04
• Snapple Beware: She’s the Gadfly in the Food Industry’s Soup The New York Observer 9/29/03
• Nutrigenomics Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio 12/26/03
• Mad Cow Disease Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio 12/26/03
• USDA to Revamp Food Pyramid All Things Considered, National Public Radio 9/11/03
• Sugar Industry Takes on the World Health Organization Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio 4/24/03
• Check Your Labels The Leonard Lopate Show, National Public Radio 4/22/03
• Food Politics Raises Provocative Questions Food Chemical News 5/20/02
• An ‘Eat More’ Message for a Fattened America The New York Times 2/19/02
• Chewing Out the Food Industry Fortune Magazine 2/18/02
• Complicating the Simple Message of ‘Eat Less’ Nutrition Week 2/18/02
• The Politics Behind an Overweight America: Talking with Dr. Marion Nestle GlobalRPh.com 8/21/01
• The Politics of Food: The Food Industry Spends $33 Billion in Advertising This Year, While Over One Quarter of U.S. Adults Are Obese Democracy Now 7/26/02

Controversies

The Amazon.com Debate:

• Sheldon Rampton’s review – Amazon.com 2/27/02
• Three anonymous reviews posted 2/22/02
• Steven Milloy review: “New Nutrition Book Choking on Bad Science” – Fox News.com 2/22/02

The Threatened Lawsuit from the Sugar Association of America:

• Letter from the Sugar Association Attorney - Sugar Association 3/27/02
• Response to the Sugar Association - Marion Nestle 4/5/02

The Consumer-Choice Debate

• Lions And Bulls And Bears, Oh My – ConsumerFreedom.com 3/15/07
• Are you responsible for your own weight? Balko R.  Pro: Absolutely.  Government has no business interfering with what you eat.  Brownell K, Nestle M.  Con: Not if Blaming the Victim Is Just an Excuse to Let Industry off the Hook.   Time June 7, 2004:113.
• Behind the “Obesity Epidemic” (Part Two of Two) – ConsumerFreedom.com 4/18/02
• The Big Food Tax – National Review 4/3/02