Talk:Marion Nestle

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Does anybody have any further background on Marion Nestle, in particular is she related to Henri Nestlé, the founder of Nestlé? Just curious, it would be somewhat ironic if she were...

[edit] Dr. Nestle; no relation to Nestlé

Dr. Nestle is not related to Henri Nestlé, and her relationship with Nestlé’s namesake company could best be described as adversarial. Nestle took Nestlé to task in her book Food Politics for pushing the sale of infant formula to mothers in low-income countries who would be better off breast-feeding their babies.

Nestlé also loses points with Dr. Nestle for its opposition to Fair Trade coffee, whose goal is to assure coffee growers a living wage. Nor is Dr. Nestle impressed with Nestlé’s “osteoporosis initiative,” a calcium-enhanced bottled water called Contrex, which Nestle characterizes as “an expensive way to take a calcium supplement.”

In January 2005, Dr. Nestle was invited to speak about the obesity epidemic at the World Economic Forum in Davos. High level executives from Nestlé and other global food conglomerates attended the session, and disputed Dr. Nestle’s well-documented contentions that marketing encourages overeating.

Most recently, Dr. Nestle has weighed in on Nestlé’s latest foray into the “functional foods” market, a beverage called Enviga, which claims to help consumers burn calories by speeding up their metabolism:

"The idea that this drink will help people lose weight is just ridiculous. It is an example of the lengths to which companies will go to sell products.”

It should be noted that Dr. Nestle’s lack of enthusiasm for Nestlé has in no way diminished her appreciation for chocolate.

Mattyrosen 18:17, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nestle and CSPI

Does anyone know anything about Dr. Nestle's connection with the Center for Science in the Public Interest?

[edit] Dr. Nestle & CSPI

While Dr. Nestle is not directly affiliated with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, she frequently cites CSPI’s research and gives high marks to CSPI, an independent advocacy group, for picking up the slack in our food safety standards due to lax government oversight from the FDA and USDA.

In 2000, Dr. Nestle collaborated with Michael F. Jacobson, the microbiologist and nutrition activist who co-founded CSPI, to write a paper entitled “Halting the Obesity Epidemic: A Public Health Policy Approach,” which called on legislators, educators, urban planners, businesses, and nonprofits to try new tactics in the battle of the bulge.

The paper calls for “national leadership to get us out of the drive-thru and off the couch if we want to stop the epidemic of obesity,” and concludes with the all-too-accurate prediction, “Without such a national commitment and effective new approaches to making the environment more favorable to maintaining healthy weight, we doubt that the current trends can be reversed.”

Mattyrosen 18:09, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the information! Frankg 21:37, 8 February 2007 (UTC)