Marion Nestle belongs to the list of ladies who profoundly modified the best way we live. In her latest work and first memoir, we get an inspiring look into her life and profession.
Photo courtesy of Marion Nestle
Throughout history, there have been influential women who profoundly modified the best way we live and the way we predict concerning the world around us. Marion Nestle (pronounced just like the verb ‘to nestle’) belongs on this list because she has labored tirelessly for many years to avoid wasting us from diet-related illnesses while keeping us firmly focused on corporate culpability for these diseases.
If we as a nation had listened to her when she gained prominence with the publication of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health in 2002, we may need saved lots of the 300,000 lives lost per 12 months to the obesity epidemic alone. Not to say that half of all American adults either have diabetes or are pre-diabetic—often preventable diseases attributable to lifestyle. If we throw in heart disease and stroke prevention, Nestle’s Clark-Kent-like record of lifesaving could border on the miraculous.
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As she notes, Nestle has had predecessors like Francis Moore Lappe, whose 1971 bestseller Weight-reduction plan for a Small Planet pinpointed the intersection of environmental degradation, hunger, poverty, and food regimen, specifically because it pertains to meat consumption. Still, Nestle’s public presence, from frequent quotes in significant publications just like the Recent York Times to her dozen books, has given her a thirty-year forum. Michael Pollan labeled her the second strongest foodie within the U.S. (after Michelle Obama). To not be outdone, Mark Bittman ranked her first in his list of foodies to be pleased about. The James Beard Foundation has twice honored her, once in 2013 with the Leadership Award and again in 2016 for her book Soda Politics. There are other awards, too quite a few to say.
Through the pandemic, she used her sequestered time to depart from her usual role as commentator and educator to jot down a memoir, Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics.
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Starting along with her toddler years as a red diaper baby (the kid of members of the U.S. Communist Party) and photographed in 1939 holding a petition asking the U.S. government to lift the Spanish embargo, it’s clear that growing up on this environment seminally shaped her worldview.
Nestle’s childhood was an unhappy one. Not only did her parents divorce when she was very young, but she also moved loads, making a real sense of instability from an early age. She went on to marry the primary man she seriously dated, who was 8 years her senior, and with him, she had two children. After ten years, the wedding painfully dissolved, leaving Nestle to rebuild each her personal and skilled life. Fortunately, she was not without options. With a level in bacteriology and extensive lab experience, she was able to tackle the subsequent chapter. Several years later, she followed Zach Hall, her latest partner, to Boston and took a position at Brandeis that evolved from post-doc to biology lecturer. Through a fateful fluke, she decided to make use of human nutrition because the teaching vehicle and located herself hooked on the topic.
After eight years, she and Zach moved back to San Francisco where she became a “spousal hire” on the University of California San Francisco where he now worked.
Nestle matter-of-factly tells us what the glass ceiling looked like within the 1970’s. Fifty years ago employers didn’t even pretend they might compensate a lady equally. They told her that since her male coworkers had wives and youngsters to support, she had a husband who could support her.
After her relationship with Zach ended, Nestle returned to high school for a Master’s in Public Health. Armed with this addition to her pedigree, she went on to land a string of prestigious jobs across the country, including one with the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion where she was the project officer for the primary Surgeon General’s Report on Nutrition and Health. It was there that she bumped up against the ability of corporate special interest groups and lobbyists. Within the Report she wasn’t permitted to recommend eating less meat, sugar, or salt, all of which rigorous research had shown to be unhealthy in excess.
Nestle’s next move put her on the trail to recognition. She had struggled for many years to seek out an mental home where her insistence on rigor and honesty can be valued. Luckily, she ultimately found it at Recent York University, where in 1988 she was hired as Chair of the Department of Home Economics and Nutrition.
Nestle was 52 years old and at last in the suitable place. Briefly order, she guided NYU into the creation of one in all the country’s first food studies programs. On the time, a level in food meant one in Nutrition and Food Science. Nestle and others were aware that food is way more than the nutrients we eat. It’s also the cultural, social, economic, gender, and political features of how and why we eat what we do. It’s sociology, business, psychology, and anthropology all rolled into one. Now, quite a few universities offer this popular Master’s degree.
Then in 2002 at age 66, her blockbuster book, Food Politics, put Nestle on the map. Suddenly, everyone wanted an interview or quote. Fortune ran a full-page article on her. She was a guest on a Peter Jennings special. Lecture offers and awards followed. In her sixth decade, the train left the station and hasn’t returned.
Not surprisingly, along the best way, she has turn into friends with among the bold-faced names within the food world, like Alice Waters and Ruth Reichl. She even tells us about her run-in with Julia Child who mistakenly thought Nestle was the ‘food police.’
At age 86, she continues to fight the great fight and makes herself available to journalists who’re writing on subjects she’s captivated with. At a recent book party for Slow Cooked, it was observed that hardly every week goes by with no perfectly succinct and cutting quote from her appearing in a serious publication.
Slow Cooked is the dessert of Nestle’s profession, an honest and satisfying course in a remarkable life. It’s also a lesson to all of us to follow our passion and make a commitment to higher the lives of others every time possible.
And, in case you’re wondering, yes, she does like to cook.
