Food Nutritional Supplement

We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing expose, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States--enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over--has a downside. Our overefficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat "more"--more food, more often, and in larger portions--no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being. Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is very big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly $900 billion in sales. They have stakeholders to please, shareholders to satisfy, and government regulations to deal with. It is nevertheless shocking to learn precisely how food companies lobby officials, co-opt experts, and expand sales by marketing to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries. We learn that the food industry plays politics as well as or better than other industries, not least because so much of its activity takes place outside the public view. Editor of the 1988 "Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, "Nestle is uniquely qualified to lead us through the maze of food industry interests and influences. She vividly illustrates food politics in action: watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economics--not science, not common sense, and certainly nothealth.No wonder most of us are thoroughly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. An accessible and balanced account, "Food Politics "will forever change the way we respond to food industry marketing practices.

This unique and easy-to-use layman's reference takes the mystery out of the bewildering array of health and labeling information that faces us every time we go to a grocery or health food store. Using this simple guide to the most important food elements and additives, readers can find out everything the average person needs to know to make healthy choices in eating and diet supplementation. Eileen Renders has pulled together a practical reference that boils down essential information from research studies, her own ongoing work in the field, and standard dietary and chemical references. Each topic is covered in a separate alphabetized chapter. In one chapter the author lists and describes all the additives that you will commonly see on labels or that may be used without labeling -- including additives used to preserve, condition, or "beautify", those that are proved or suspected to be harmful, as well as those that are benign or even beneficial. She devotes a chapter to processed foods that have been largely stripped of nutritional value and suggests tasty, nutritious substitutes. Several chapters provide information on nutrients -- their functions, typical deficiencies, and generally accepted therapeutic qualities. Chapters on amino acids, vitamins and minerals with trace minerals), oils and essential fatty acids, enzymes, and antioxidents are included. Food sources of these various nutrients are considered in a separate chapter, as are dietary supplements. Offering quick authoritative answers in plain language and an easy-to-use format, Renders' book is he only up-to-date reference that covers all these important topics under one cover. It will simplify life for anyone concernedwith planning tasty nutritious meals and insuring a healthy diet.