Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, by Marion Nestle, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, 457 pp., $15.95. Be it in lobbying for favourable trade laws, pushing for changes in food legislation, or strategically recruiting nutritionists to promote the dubious health content of their products, today's food industry has unprecedented influence in government and science to promote its interests at the expense of the consumer's health. Hardly a day goes past without us being told what we should be eating. On television, on the radio, in scientific journals, various foods are championed or denounced for their so-called health value. In addition to the dissemination of confusing dietary advice, mi-crobial outbreaks, uncertainty about GM foods, and the emerging fear of food bioterrorism have contributed to bewildering the masses and have led to a climate of dietary paranoia which suits the interests of food marketers. From obesity epidemics to childhood diabetes, from foot-and-mouth to salmonella, over the years the system has failed to find a balance betweens consumer interests and the food industry's insatiable greed.
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