Marion Nestle is a consumer advocate, nutritionist, award-winning author, and academic who specializes in the politics of food and dietary choice. Her research examines scientific, economic, and social influences on food choice and health, with an emphasis on the role of food industry marketing. Her books explore how politics affects food production, dietary intake, food safety, and human and planetary health.
She is the author of the classic
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health which won awards from the Association of American Publishers, the James Beard Foundation, and World Hunger Year. Her second book,
Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety, won the Steinhardt School of Education’s Griffiths Research Award.
Dr. Nestle’s book,
What to Eat was named as one of Amazon’s top ten books of the year and a “Must Read” by
Eating Well magazine; it also won the Better Life Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the James Beard Foundation book award for best food reference. She is currently working on an updated edition titled
What to Eat Now (North Point Press, Fall 2025). An excerpt titled
The Fish Counter will be published by Picador on June 10, 2025 as part of their “Oceans, Rivers, and Streams” series.
Dr. Nestle’s other books include
Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine;
Feed Your Pet Right, co-authored with Malden Nesheim;
Why Calories Count: from Science to Politics, also with Malden Nesheim, which won book of the year from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP);
Eat, Drink, Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics, which won an IACP book award;
Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning), which won an IACP book award along with the James Beard Award for Writing & Literature;
Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat which exposes how the food industry corrupts scientific research for profit and was one of
Nature‘s Best Science Books of the Year; and
Let’s Ask Marion: What You Need to Know about the Politics of Food, Nutrition, and Health with Kerry Trueman. Dr. Nestle has also written a memoir titled
Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics.
