Nutritionist Marion Nestle weighs in on ‘What to Eat Now’ : NPR

Nutrition Policy Expert Marion Nestle says that when she wrote her first book, Food policyIn 2002, people often asked her what food had to do with politics.

“Nobody asks me that anymore,” says Nestle. “When I look at what’s happening with food aid, I’m just stunned.”

Nestlé says the Trump administration's efforts to withhold SNAP benefits made clear to millions of Americans how fragile our economy is: “We have 42 million people in this country—16 million of them children—who cannot count on a consistent source of food day in and day out and are forced to depend on a government program that provides them with benefits that do not actually cover their food needs, but only cover a portion of their food needs.”

Decades of studying the food industry have given Nestlé a clear understanding of why food has become difficult to afford, including how supermarkets are helping to solve the problem. “The goal of a supermarket is to sell as much food as possible to as many people as possible, as often as possible, and at as high a price as possible,” she says.

Nestle book 2006, What isupon its release, it became something of a consumer bible, guiding readers through the supermarket and showing how industry marketing and politics drive our food choices. Now, two decades later, she's back with What is there nowrevised supermarket guide 2025.

Nestle recommends what it calls a “triple duty” diet aimed at preventing hunger, obesity and climate change: “Eat real food, as little processed as possible, with a heavy emphasis on plants,” she says.

Interview Highlights

How supermarkets are in the business of selling food rather than providing food

The more products you see, the more likely you are to buy. Thus, products that are organized in such a way that you cannot miss them are found in high-end supermarkets. And companies pay supermarkets to place their products at eye level, at the ends of aisles (they have a special name, end caps) and at the cash register. When you see products at the checkout, they pay the supermarket a commission per inch of space. This is how supermarkets make most of their money – through slot commissions. And, of course, this discourages small producers because they cannot afford to make such payments. … I mean, we're talking thousands and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars. And every product that is in the supermarket is placed where it is for a reason.

How dollar stores entered the grocery business

They started by selling the most popular ultra-processed foods. …They'll have chips. They would be sugar-sweetened cereal. They will have every junk food you can think of. This is where they make money. They'll have a few fruits and vegetables, a few sad bananas, a few sad apples, maybe some pears, maybe some green vegetables, but not very many, and they'll be in a drawer somewhere because they'll have to offer them. Because they receive SNAP benefits, they must qualify for the SNAP program, which requires them to have a certain amount of fruits and vegetables. … AND [dollar stores are] just everywhere. And especially during the pandemic, they just multiplied like crazy and undermined local stores. They are cheaper. Their food is of lower quality, but their prices are lower. Price is a huge issue.

If you want a Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or Wegmans in your area, you need hundreds of thousands of people within walking distance or driving distance who are making very, very good incomes or [people] let's not go there. They're going to close stores that aren't doing very well, which means a lot of people are going to be spending lots and lots of money there. And as big-box grocery stores in the inner city closed, dollar stores popped up.

About food waste in America

Our food system in the United States produces 4000 calories day for every man, woman and little child in the country. This is approximately twice as much as the average population needs. Thus, waste is built into the system. Because that's how subsidies work. Agricultural subsidies encourage food producers to produce as much food as possible because they are paid for the amount of food they produce.

Upon initial agreement with Robert F. Kennedy Jr..'s”Make America Healthy Again“approach to the food industry

I was really hopeful when he was appointed because he was talking about, let's remove toxins from the food supply. Let's make America healthy again. Let's make America's children healthy again. Let's do something about ultra-processed foods. Let's do something about mercury and fish. And many other problems that I thought, “Oh, it's great that we'll have someone who cares about the same problems that I do. This is very interesting.”

When President Trump introduced his nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on social media, President Trump talked about the food industrial complex. I almost fell out of my chair! I thought: “The president speaks just like me. What's going on here? So we had the first MAHA report, the first Make America Healthy Again report, which talked about many of these issues and laid out an ambitious agenda. “We're going to work on this, this and this” all sounded amazing. And then the second report came out, and they abandoned almost everything that I thought was really critical.

On why she thinks the food system needs a revolution

I think it has to start with transforming our agricultural production system into one that focuses on food for people rather than animals and cars. We will need to change our election system so that we can elect officials who are interested in public health rather than corporate health. We will need to fix our economy so that Wall Street favors corporations whose social and public health values ​​are part of their corporate mission. These are revolutionary concepts at the moment because they seem very far from achievable. But I think if we don't work on it now, if we don't do everything we can to advocate for a better food system, we won't get there. And only if we stand for it do we have a chance of getting it. And you never know, sometimes you get lucky. …

I tell people that they can't do this on their own, that even the act of going to the grocery store and trying to make healthy choices means that you, as an individual, are confronted with an entire food system whose goal is to get you to eat the most profitable foods possible, regardless of their health and environmental impacts. Therefore, you will have to join organizations. You need to team up with other people who are interested in the same issues and are concerned about the same problems, and get together with them to set some goals for what you would like to do, and then work towards achieving those goals. Because if you don't, who will?

Teresa Madden and Anna Bauman produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Benz, Molly Seavey-Nesper and Megan Sullivan adapted it for the web.