Prof. Nestle,

Wow!

Great book, great title, great end notes.

You made it accessible, even for someone like me, who is functionally illiterate wrt nutrition.

Have you and your editors considered high school and college teachers as a possible market? Chemistry classes and especially anything inter-disciplinary could really profit imho from using your book as a text.

Thanks to whomever at FDL picket this book, it’s the only way I would have ever heard about it.

Marion, Welcome to the Lake.

Christy, Thank you for Hosting today’s Book Salon.

Happy to be here. I haven’t done one of these for a long time but am happy to respond to viewers’ comments or questions.

Welcome Marion — so wonderful to have you here today.

One of the questions that I kept having as I read What To Eat was how can we more successfully push back for better food regulations and inspections? It’s tough pushing past all that industry lobbying money and effort. But the organic rules pushback serves as a good model.

How else can we help make things better in terms of food oversight?

My pleasure, Bev — this book was a wonderful read.

Marion,

Welcome. Got this book some time ago and have been reading it from cover to cover in small batches since. Thanks for writing it.

Given Obama’s recent promises to make some difference (particularly to clean up food safety, something that is prominent in your book), I wonder what you think the chances of him succeeding are–and ways that we can pressure the Obama Administration to make sure they succeed?

Welcome to FDL Marion and thank you.

I have not had a chance to read your book but since I like food, it looks like something I should pick up.

I think I am at least fortunate in that my folks taught me how to buy most fresh products anyway. (which doesn’t help now when so much food is pre-processed but does at least allow me to know when I am doing something right) :})

Thanks for the comments! I wrote What to Eat for a general audience. It’s really about how to think about food issues. I’ve moved on to other projects but several people have asked about adaptations for younger people but I’m not sure they need it. I used it as a text for undergraduates and it worked well. Again, thanks.

Welcome, I have been looking forwward toyou visit.

hhow can we make the FDA actually do it’s job?
Also, how do we regulate the indiscrimnate use of antibiotics in animal feed. It’s causing super bugs and making me afraid of pork chops

Also, I was amazed at industry pushback against improving inspection and safety quality on their products. I understand that short-term profit has become an all-encompassing obsession for some businesses. But, as a lawyer, I have to say that the lax standards in terms of food safety — especially with regard to butchered meat reliance on recalls or lack of seafood testing made me cringe. That’s seriously a lawsuit waiting to happen on so many levels with so many foods at once. (No wonder Bill Marler stays so busy!)

It was great to see that companies such as Legal Seafoods take their quality so seriously. Is there any resource available that you recommend to ascertain which companies are doing well with safety issues? Center for Science in the Public Interest or someone else perhaps?

As a mom, any guidance on that would be much appreciated.

I think healthy food is really about democracy. If we want a food system that is healthy for people and the environment, we need to use the political system to get it. And that means joining like-minded organizations, writing local, state, and federal officials, and making sure that elected representatives know that you think these issues are important.

I’m so pleased about the new FDA Commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, and not just because she is an old friend and colleague. I see her appointment as a signal that President Obama is serious about fixing the food safety system. If you haven’t heard his speech, I posted it on my website, http://www.foodpolitics.com a few days ago.

Have been looking forward to this since I heard What to Eat was being discussed. Let me dispense with a thought I first had and then will not worry about it– Marion, are you part of the Nestle food family? Excuse if that is a rude question.

His speech the other day made it sound like he absolutely gets it about food safety. Now is a great time to let your representatives know that you want momentum on this issue.

I had heard the story about the McGovern attempt to realign dietary guidelines to reduce meat consumption for heart and health protection — but re-reading it in more detail in What To Eat brought home just how powerful the industry lobby (especially meat) for BigAg can be in a legislative context. The fact that we are still refighting that battle from the 1970s is astonishing, and yet here we are.

The most recent food pyramid recommendations are still as muddled as they became after that McGovern attempt, aren’t they? And yet the need for reduction of saturated fats still stands.

That’s great to know about Legal. I’ve eaten at a number of their places in the Metro Boston area and never gotten a bad meal there at all.

Not rude at all. It’s a hilarious name for a nutritionist. In my book Food Politics I wrote about the boycott of Nestle products because of what the company was doing to push infant formula in Africa. I had two reasons for including that section: first, because nobody remembers the boycott and second, so I would have a chance to say that I’m not related, alas. But thanks for asking.

I was really impressed — Marion walks through their procedures and the fact that the bonus structure for managers of their stores and restaurants is tied to safety successes. Very impressive testing requirements, I have to say.

Let’s hope the new administration does better on dietary advice for the public. The government has already appointed the scientific committee developing dietary guidelines for 2010. Those will be the basis of yet another pyramid. So we have the opportunity now to fix the 2005 pyramid and make it more useful to the public.

Marion — could you talk a bit more about trans fats and why it took so long from the time they were found to be detrimental healthwise to the time companies finally had to label them as being part of their products? I can recall my fourth grade teacher talking about how bad they were after she read about them in a CSPI newsletter warning about them.

I thought your discussion of trans-fats was an instructive snapshot of how industry concerns about impact on marketing and market share bleed into public health decisions and stall or water down legislation and regs for extraordinarily long periods of time.

I’d love it if they wouldn’t write the information in legal-ese, for starters.

Is chocolate classified as a major food group, and if not, why not? *g*

I don’t know anyone other than CSPI that tracks that sort of thing but you can do the work yourself pretty easily. USDA (for meat and poultry) and FDA (for all other foods)post recalls and warning notices on their respective websites. You may have to search around the sites to find the right pages, but the information is public. But until we have a safety system with some teeth in it, lazy or unscrupulous companies will always cut corners, unfortunately.

If only everyone made those choices. Eating healthfully is easy if you just eat real food and stay away from packages.

Also, as someone whose family has a history of estrogen-sensitive breast cancers, I really appreciate you trying to pick through the crazy mishmash of information about soy products. It was incredibly uplifting to find out that even a well-versed nutritionist gets incredibly mixed signals out of them, too.

What is the best way for a lay person to find good, solid information about nutrition rather than being dragged back and forth by competing claims or industry PR-sponsored studies? Are there solid information sources that you rely on and/or recommend as doing good science and evaluation? If so, which ones?

My husband got me some chocolate labelled as “antioxidant-rich” as a joke for Christmas last year. It’s now my excuse — my body is craving some antioxidants. *G*

This is one situation where I think it just took a long time for the science to be strong enough to convince people that trans fats were a problem. They are much like saturated fats, maybe a bit worse, but artificial so removable (saturated fats are natural and not removable). The science wasn’t really convincing until about 1990 and the food industry really, really didn’t want to stop using shelf stable fats. I count this one as a win for CSPI which worked hard to get trans fat labeling on food packages.

You mean other than reading What to Eat, of course? I wrote What to Eat because I didn’t know of anything else out there that covered these kinds of issues. It’s got dozens of pages of references so people can read what I did and draw their own conclusions.

All fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants and they are by far the best sources.

It falls in the candy category. Sorry.

the last two July’s I have been in Europe, this last year in France where chickens are labeled with the region where they are grown but also tagged with the farmer. I saw this labeling in other meats.

Both times when in Europe, food tasted so outstanding. So fresh and just garden picked even from the produce store on Rue Clar in Paris. I could smell the ripe berries on the sidewalk.

Do you think that here in the US we can move to a system where our food is more local, picked near ripeness and farmers are so proud of their produce they are labeled with their name & residence?

I’ve only just started to read the book, so forgive me if this is covered farther in, but do you discuss schools at all in “What To Eat”? Both the school lunch program and the general nutritional education affect how kids learn to approach their own food choices — though perhaps not as much as the choices their parents make for them and the choices pushed by the trillions is advertising aimed at them.

Well, I have had to make adjustments from the way of cooking my folks taught me. Like frying chicken using Canola oil instead of Crisco or lard.

Little things like that.

But I do try to use fresh veggies and such whenever I can. And make real whipped potatos instead of instant, stuff like that.

I loved that managers at a few of the grocery stores were worried you were doing health inspections when they found you taking notes. Hilarious.

The research for the book is wonderful. You must have had a lot of fun, and yet gotten seriously annoyed at some of it. I was appalled at how little truly had changed from Upton Sinclair’s day in terms of slaughterhouses — it’s just hidden better from public view — either that or we try to avoid knowing.

My daughter is five, and we are already having to deal with marketing-targeted “I wanna”s. Most of which is so sugar-laden, it’s appalling that they label it as a kid’s product. And that includes children’s yogurts.

Welcome Marion, and thanks for writing about a subject near and dear to my heart.

How big a problem is it that the Agriculture Committee is packed with crooks interested in little more than who’s going to bribe them today?

(Blue Dog central, that is.)

It sure is hard, they are saying that Kidney cancer is linked to chemical exposure to such things as coal tar, machinist oil and other manufacturing machining lubricants. The only thing I can think of is the T-gel shampoo I used for years……the “T” stood for coal tar…..

Definitely, and it’s happening all across the country. You can count the increase in farmers’ markets. If more people asked for locally grown food, ti would create a bigger demand. So everytime you buy local food, you are voting with your fork!

Marion, I do remember the boycott and some other disappointing things about Nestle, so will say whew, that is a relief!

I have your book on order so have not read it. I try to eat fresh but even a bag of potatoes probably has the chemical that prevents sprouting. Apples cukes etc, have the wax coating, and try to find a head of garlic not grown in China.

All the grocery store produce section managers run and hide when they see me coming, complaining that items are not labeled as to origin. We live about 200 miles from Gilroy the garlic capitol of the world and can not find garlic that is not from China! boy does that make me angry, and the taste is different! that is the most irksome thing to me since the madcow problem/Canada of a few years when I quit eating beef, much to my cattle ranching sister’s disgust! They do not understand that there are no safequards that I trust regarding the beef industry under the current agencies that test and monitor. I hope under Obama genuine reliable changes will be made. Oh what I wouldn’t give for a nice slice of safe roast beef.

In What to Eat, I talk about marketing to kids. I covered schools in my previous book, Food Politics. Not much has changed since then except that more people are concerned and many school districts are trying to fix the food and get the vending machines out. Anyone who is working on that deserves lots of help and support!

I’m sure others will provide a more comprehensive response. Check out pages 327-328 regarding Snapple in schools.

Thanks for this book, Marion. This may seem like a silly question, but almost every day, there’s another story about a “study” either proving or disproving the benefits of, say, coffee or eggs or butter, but there is never any kind of disclaimer included in the article about who was actually sponsoring the study.

What can we do to get better transparency in these stories?

Writing that book was more fun than anything. I learned something new everytime I set foot in a store. It was a year-long exercise in curiosity and I knew that if I didn’t know that stuff, other people probably didn’t either. I just hope the book is as useful and fun for readers as it was for me to do.

Forgot to mention that Marion says the Monteray Bay Aquarium keeps a running list of good and not-so-good seafood choices in terms of mercury, PCBs and also environmental issues. You can find that list here — they update it frequently. If you print it off, you can take it with you to a restaurant or store for healthier selections.

Greetings Marion – thank you for what looks to be an excellent book. My question is how does one fo about finding more natural and wholesome sources for the day to day food they consume? It always sounds easy, but my family has found it to not be so easy.

for instance, we live in Phoenix Arizona, where would we go to find better meat, dairy and general food products? I don’t mean names specifically because obviously you likely wouldn’t know that, but are there general rules of thumb to go by?

I’ve got a chapter on marketing to kids in What to Eat, and another entirely on yogurts. I wish manufacturers would just leave them alone.

I wouldn’t put it quite that strongly. The source of corruption in government is the way our electoral system works. As long as corporations fund election campaigns, our elected officials will represent business interests rather than public health.

Has any research gone into homogenized Milk, in Europe milk is sterilized but not homogenized, packaged in boxes and put on the shelf, refrigeration not needed until opened.

Years ago I read a study about this comparing cardiac health and the breakdown of the fat molecule of milk during the homogenizes process where the molecule was broken down so small that is more easily absorbed in the intestine which increased the fat absorption. Homogenizing of milk is done only for cosmetics so that customers do not see the milk separate, a natural process with chilled milk.

There’s a chemical that is supposed to stop potatos from seeding?

I must be lucky that none of the grocers in my areas have used it as it is not uncommon for me to be picking sprouts off the potatos while cleaning them before fixing.

Country of Origin labels (COOL) only went into effect a few weeks ago, so give them a little break. Congress delayed implementing them until this June, I think. For the recent history of COOL, click on COOL in the cloud on http://www.foodpolitics.com.

yay! good news is hard to find when it comes to food safety lately.

digg is open.

CSPI (www.cspinet.org) has a section on Integrity in Science run by Merrill Goozner. He is on the job and is constantly pushing reporters to disclose sponsorship. I think journals are getting better about insisting on disclosure and a good thing too.

We used to feed our daughter the Stonyfield yo baby yogurt — because it’s organic and I thought healthier. As you talk about in What to Eat, I took a peek at the label one day and it’s chock full of sugar. So we transitioned her a bit — I saved old containers, rinsed them out well, and filled them back up with some plain, nonfat or 2% yogurt mixed with some unsweetened applesauce and minced strawberries or other fruits. And then stopped using the containers altogether once she acquired the taste. (She was and still is a very visual eater, hence the “marketing” with the carton for a bit.)

We’re very careful not to give her a lot of heavily sugared stuff. But the yogurt had slipped by me because it’s a healthy brand. And it is a bit lower in sugar than some other kids brands, but still — it had four or five different types of sweetener in one little cup.

One of the things that is so strange about the Agriculture Committee is because of the tie-in to futures markets, it has a lot to do with oversight or the lack thereof of derivatives.

Is that irradiation?

When I was a GI in Hawaii, there was discussion of opening the state to allow irradiated milk because of the long shelf life. Otherwise the only milk legally sold on the Islands at the time was from Hawaiian dairies. (This was 25 years ago so things may have changed)

If you go on my website, http://www.foodpolitics.com, and click on Links, I’ve posted a link to a site that tracks this sort of thing. Hope that works!

Every Saturday and Wednesday evening the Downtown Phoenix Market have growers sell organic veggies, raw milk, eggs and cheese.
Downtown Phoenix Market

MBA is an incredible place that does a great job at combining education with research, and doing it all in a way that is highly engaging and entertaining.

If anyone is ever out in the SF area, do yourself a favor, take an extra day, and head down to Monterrey and the MBA. You won’t be sorry!

Unless you move from SF to Kansas City. From my seven year old: “Dad, when can we visit The Aquarium again?” This from the kid that ordered “squid and chips” (think “fish and chips” with calamari instead of cod) from the adult menu for his fourth birthday, rather than go for mac and cheese or a burger from the kids menu.

Marion, I mentioned above that you also have a book on pet food issues. Wondered if you could say a few words about that — and how that ties in with human food as well? Everything truly is so intertwined these days…

I cover this issue in the Milk chapter of What to Eat. I am not aware of convincing evidence that homogenization does anything bad to milk. Science of this type is difficult to interpret, so the operative work is always “convincing.” You always have to ask how well designed the studies were.

Marion, I have not finished WHAT TO EAT, but I find it very satisfying on many levels. Your interactions with the attorney from the Sugar Association was a personal favorite.
OT, the single most helpful and actionable take-away for me was what you wrote about CERTIFIED ORGANIC.

Has your position on that modified at all in any way which is worth mentioning?

Thanks Christy for hosting.

There is, but wouldn’t you rather not have such chemicals on your food? You are wise to pick off the sprouts. They contain solanine, a toxin, that is best not to eat.

dakine01 at 49– google potato sprout preventive. not all spuds are treated, I always sort of like remove those things, except for the big scary ones.

I talked to the Stonyfield people about this and they say that people won’t buy yogurt that isn’t presweetened. But I was shocked by the amount of sugars in baby yogurts. Babies don’t need added sugars and it’s best to postpone added sugars for as long as you can get away with it.

Oh, it is far easier for me to pick off the sprouts and that was just part of the training growing up.

Just like peeling the potato when it has a bit of ‘green skin’ showing and having it other than baked in that instance, as I’ve read that is also a bit of a poison (I also throw out potato chips that are green for the same reason)

something tells me your site will be oft visited here!

Thank you!

A year or so ago I was at our local co-op grocery store in Sacramento. I was browsing in the frozen food section and came across beautifully packaged spinach. There was a picture of a barn and it was very New Englandish and cute. On the back of the package in small print I found that the spinach was grown on an organic farm in China. This was around the time of the melamine scare. I got in touch with the manager of the co-op and he tried to convince me that the source was well managed. I no longer buy anything that isn’t local. The last time I was in the co-op the spinach was still there.

Is that on Jackson?

What I remember was ultra-pasteurized…. it wasn’t unlimited shelf life but not in a dairy case chilled.

Another question, eggs were also sold on the shelf and not chilled in France & Greece. Shells were hard has well really hard. First time thought I had bought hard boiled eggs. Is it the health and free from disease or custom?

I’m writing a book about pet food, What Pets Eat, with my partner, Dr. Malden Nesheim. This will be a combination of Food Politics and What to Eat, but for cats and dogs. Like What to Eat, it’s not really about what you should feed your pet, but instead how to think about what to feed cats and dogs. Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine was a spinoff from What Pets Eat, but it came out first. It is a history and analysis of the pet food recalls of 2007 which totally predicted the melamine-in-infant formula scandal in China and also the peanut butter recalls. It’s a book about the implications of our global food supply for food safety here and elsewhere.

Marion, has the proliferation of food shows on television had an impact on people making better food choices? From Julia Child and the Frugal Gourmet on PBS to the cooks on The Food Network today, there seems to be more and more exposure to the idea of getting good ingredients and cooking for yourself.

Is it having any impact that you have seen, or is this just wishful thinking on my part?

I now make my own pet food.

It is now bookmarked on my computer!

Yes, alas, it has. When I wrote What to Eat, everyone I talked to said the Certified Organic system was basically honest. I’m hearing more doubts now. I am a huge supporter of organic standards. I just wish they were stronger and much, much better enforced. Let’s hope that Kathleen Merrigan, the new assistant secretary of USDA, will see to that.

One of the more intriguing process over function things that Marion detail in What to Eat was the efforts that were not taken to stop the spread of SE — an infectious ick that passed from rodents to chickens first in the Northeast and then went nationwide as regulatory agencies dithered.

The irradiated also does not/did not require refrigeration is why I asked.

You were wise to ask. How does that manager know the supplier was well managed? China ought to be able to produce organic food but I would be happier if someone I trusted had inspected the place and on more than one occasion.

721 N. Central
SE Corner of Central Ave. & McKinley St. (2 blks S of Roosevelt)

This is a growing thing, very much like a farmers market meets Portland Oregon’s Saturday Market with crafts. Have vender’s with cooked food, yum

Marion — a bit of a personal question, if I may: when you cook, what cookbooks do you turn to most often? I’m always curious to know the sorts of recipes that nutritionists make for themselves.

Why they do not refrigerate eggs in Europe is beyond me. They don’t. I think they should. They don’t have as much Salmonella as we do, but they have some, and bacteria grow much faster at room temperature than they do in the refrigerator.

What would you say are the four or five most critical sub-cabinet level jobs that deal with food issues — and do you have any opinions on the folks who have been nominated to fill them?

The food shows are about entertainment. I hardly know any serious food professionals who watch them. As one staff person on the Food Network told me, these shows are vicarious pleasure. The best thing about them is that food watched on TV has no calories!

The manager also told me that so much of our food comes from China that his choices are limited. This is from (I think) the co-op that was started in Berkeley.

Good for you!

As I discuss in What to Eat, I’m not crazy about irradiation. It’s a late-stage techno-fix of a problem that should have been prevented in the first place.

it’s hard for me to get a handle on how much a company can pay for product position, how much money could a company possibly make over what the placement fee?

sometimes the scale is illusuve

By this time, I cook by feel and don’t use cookbooks much. I like the golden oldies–old editions of the Joy of Cooking and the New York Times cookbook. For basics, I also like anything by Mitchell Davis (Kitchen Sense is terrific–everything works), Martha Rose Shulman, Joyce Goldstein, and Mark Bittman. But there are loads of others I consult occasionally. These are all friends and I love eating their food.

the one thing that a lot of people don’t know is that egg shells are a semi-permeable membrane, at least when I was growing eggs from chickens that were told not to wash the egg it just moved the bacteria from chicken pooh into the egg, they are sanded with sand paper…… to clean them.

One of the points that Marion makes in What to Eat about those stocking fees is that no one really has a good handle on how much is paid out, for what reasons and how the whole thing is structured. Congressional committees that have tried to do oversight have been thoroughly stonewalled — including, if I remember correctly, Henry Waxman at one point — as have the oversight agencies been stymied in trying to get details on them.

It’s a really arcane system designed to be opaque on purpose.

The biggies are FDA and USDA. As I mentioned earlier, I think Peggy Hamburg was an inspired choice for FDA Commissioner. I’m trying to keep an open mind about Tom Vilsack as USDA Secretary. I think we have to wait and see how this plays out. FDA is a mess and badly needs to be cleaned up.

I love Martha Rose Schulman’s books on Mediterranean and Provencal light cooking — wonderful stuff. Two of my faves as well, although sadly I think the Provencal one may be out of print these days.

He needs to be encouraged to source locally, no? He’s in California for heavens’ sake. That’s where food is grown!

Hi Marion, thanks for stopping by and sharing your knowledge. I haven’t read your book but I will.

I read a tip the other day — put a teaspoon of canola oil in the water when you boil eggs and the shells will slip off more easily when you peel them later. Never thought about doing that — but I tried it and it worked really well. A tiny bit of the oil seeps in under the shell between it and the membrane and makes the membrane not stick as much when you peel the shell off.

The easiest way to understand this is to think of advertising (product placement is a form of advertising) as about 5% of product sales. So if Kellogg spends $33 million a year just to advertise Cheez-Its, multiply that by 20 to get an estimate of annual sales.

One manufacturer told me his company spent $250 million on slotting fees to get his products into U.S. stores.

You mentioned a little bit about Peggy on your blog earlier this week, I saw — she worked in food safety in NYC, didn’t she? What do you hope she’ll be able to do at FDA given what you know of her strengths from her prior work?

Beyond the Joy OF Cooking (mine was a Christmas present about 25 years ago), you really can’t go to far wrong with old (or new) church fund-raiser type cookbooks. With those you usually get everyone’s best and the accompanying short-cuts. Of course, that assumes the short cuts don’t call for using all the bad food/pre-packaged type things.

Thanks. It was very clear to me from reading your understandably careful construction, that CERTIFIED ORGANIC was not to be construed with infallibly safe. The context of the book repeatedly reinforced that CERTIFIED ORGANIC was simply the least bad label that was fairly accessible.

Another favorite moment in the book was when you were sending some seeds? something, out to be tested, and “always the scientist,” you sent “controls” to the testing lab.

Fortunately for your readers, you used your prodigous skills for the public good. I am sorry many other scientists have not had your social conscience.

$250 million?!? That seems insane to me. But when you think about how many stores there are in each little town multiplied by the number of products a major manufacturer could produce to sell and….well, it still seems like an insane amount, but maybe ever so slightly less insane.

Greetings All, I have an issue with my fav basketball team being sick while playing road games. Is this from bad food at bad restuarants? I’ve come to understand that a large % of stomach flu is just this. I’ve taken to using ‘Grapefruit Extract Oil’ at any sign of flu like symtoms and have not been sick in 2 years!

I think that was the irradiated papaya, wasn’t it? That was a hoot. And you were right above — the sugar story was priceless. *G*

This gives me a chance to talk about the Fales Food Studies collection at the NYU Library. In the last 5 years, the Fales special collections has accumulated 20,000 books about food, 6,000 pamplets, and large collections of documents from restaurants, chefs, cookbook authors, photographs, menus, and other works on paper. The library is actively seeking donations of materials about food and particularly needs books about food systems and agriculture, especially items related to urban farming, food procurement, etc.

thanks so much. I’ve been lucky to have had the opportunity.

Many times the team and the TeeVee crew are feed from catered food service. Who knows the sanitation and the quality of the food that is catered. Same complaints from TeeVee crew members at times…….

How I wish it were that easy. In situations like that, it’s best to make sure that food is well cooked to kill germs.

Marion — if there were a couple of pieces of dietary advice you wish everyone would heed, what would they be?

She’s quiet and understated and very political. As health commissioner in New York, she did a great job of implementing testing of people with tuberculosis and TB rates declined sharply. This was not easy. She has impeccable medical credentials and vast experience in government. And people like her a lot. Fingers crossed!

It is good to know there are a few around still—

Wow — that sounds wonderfully like just what the FDA needs. Now you have me hoping for the best, too. That doesn’t happen too often these days, either.

As I say in What to Eat, diets are really quite simple. All you have to do is eat less (if you are worried about weight), move more, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and don’t eat too much junk food. That’s really all there is to it. The rest is distraction.

Well, my thighs beg to differ, but my brain thinks you are likely right on target there. *g*

So do my parents, having lost a pet of theirs to bad food and bad pet chew toys. Rice and thoroughly cooked ground beef are what go in their doggies’ dishes now!

Marion,

I’m late to this thread but would like to know your thoughts on antibiotics being injected into cows, pigs, etc. and what impact this has on humans resistance to antibiotics. I read something today, don’t remember where, that something like 70% of all antibiotics are fed to animals, not humans. Have no clue if this is true or not but if it is, that is shocking.

Yupper. When he had to lose weight or die a few years ago, my spouse lost a lot of weight at first but seems to have plateaued at a weight higher than he likes.

It is true. And a huge problem. I was on the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production that issued a report last April (you can find it under Animals on http://www.foodpolitics.com). The report discusses this issue in great detail. Its first recommendation: stop doing this!

Plateaus are hard to get through. Tell him if he holds the weight steady, he’s doing great. Eventually, he’ll start losing again.

They need a varied diet just like people do. Could they add in some veggies once in a while?

Marion — could you say a few words about the politicization of food policy? In What to Eat, you mention right-wing and industry attacks on groups like the Pew trusts, whose mission is to promote environmentally sound and scientifically-based sustainable policies on the one hand, and folks like the Averys at The Hudson Institute — which our regulars already know is a right-wing think tank — who fight against regulations or changes to industry standards and promote ideas like “industry self-policing” instead of outside regulation.

It seems like there are so many differing agendas all trying to push at once, it really is no wonder so much of this is stalled and/or watered down to gibberish half the time.

The rest is distraction

Or a matter of taste — which is what can get us to eat in a more healthy way.

After getting overcooked canned asparagus as a kid for years, my wife was delightfully stunned at the flavor and texture of fresh steamed asparagus when I made it for her shortly after we got married. “Oh, so that’s what it’s supposed to taste like!”

Marion, I see Vertical Farms as an important development.

As this link confirms,
Perched on the edge of a comeback; it can be attempted in a less technologically intensive way than a sky-scraper.

Just wondered if you had any opinions about vertical (or as I like to call it, indoor) farming?

Completely agree.

Found the same thing out about cauliflower.

Marion’s section on salt is really good on this topic.

I’m impressed that grass-roots political action works some of the time and there really isn’t much other choice. Otherwise, it’s a matter of money talks. Example: Food Democracy Now’s campaign to get someone appointed to USDA who cared about sustainable agriculture. They collected 87,000 signatures over the Internet. The result: Kathleen Merrigan’s appointment as USDA undersecretary, the #2 position at USDA. That would not have happened without that kind of pressure. So food advocates have to exercise democratic rights as citizens and use the political process!

I haven’t overcome the asparagus dislike but have grown to enjoy fresh broccoli and spinach (not cooked for either though)

Marion — before we finish up today, I wanted to thank you for this wonderful book. It really is one of the best that I’ve read about the intersection of policy, politics, profits, pathogens and the food we eat — incredibly informative and accessible, which is a miracle in and of itself. But I want to also thank you for all of your work on these issues.

It’s been so great to have you here at FDL today. Please come back any time — we’d love to have you.

How about outdoor farming? On dirt? I was pleased to see that small farms are increasing in the U.S. I know lots of people who would like to farm but can’t afford the land. They probably can’t afford waterproof buildings either. I think vertical farming is an interesting idea and could be useful in urban areas, but I can’t believe vegetables grown that way will taste as good as those grown in soil. Hydroponic tomatoes? I’d rather wait for the season.

Remind me to send you a grilled balsamic asparagus recipe that I have. It’s nummy and even my veggie-hating spouse loves it.

Thanks so much. I do this sort of thing (although much more slowly) on http://www.foodpolitics.com, so feel free to visit.

Does this mean I’m to sign off now?

Canines are carnivores. They lack the enzymes to digest veggies. Look into a species appropriate diet. Yes they do need variety just not veggies or carohydrates. Dogs have a digestive system completely different from humans.

Only if you want to…

Actually, dogs are omnivores and have a digestive tract much like that of humans, but shorter. Dogs evolved from wolves, which are carnivores, but are much different physiologically.

Only if you are ready to do so — stay as long as you like!

For folks who haven’t visited Marion’s site, it really is a wonderful one full of a lot of great information about her work and books and such, as well as general food info. Recommend it highly.

Have you read Mech’s study? He has studied wolves for many years and would disagree. Starting with the teeth which are designed to rip and tear into chunks to swallow as digestion doesn’t start until the food gets to the stomach.

For our book, What Pets Eat, we reviewed the research on canine diets at considerable depth. I know there are many opinions out there but we found plenty of research demonstrating serious nutrient deficiencies among dogs restricted to all-meat diets. If your dog is eating meat plus the contents of stomachs of animals, it probably is getting all the nutrients it needs. I’d rather feed mine some vegetables instead.

It looks like things are slowing down, so I’ll log off now. Thanks so much for participating and come visit me at http://www.foodpolitics.com, where I blog daily (well, almost). Cheers to all!

Marion, thank you for a very interesting discussion this afternoon.

As we come to the end of this great Book Salon,

Marion, Thank you for stopping by the Lake and spending the afternoon with us discussing your book and Food Politics. Please stay as long as you want to answer questions.

Christy, Thank you very much for Hosting this Book Salon.

Everyone, if you haven’t bought this great book yet, here is a link.

Thanks all.

It’s been wonderful, Marion — thanks so much for coming to talk food with us today!

Had an interruption in my connection so couldn’t reply in a timely manner. Let me add my thank you for a great discussion.

Thank you for answering my questions…..