Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics (California Studies in Food and Culture) [Hardcover]

Marion Nestle (Author), Malden Nesheim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 18, 2012 | Series: California Studies in Food and Culture (Book 33)

Calories--too few or too many--are the source of health problems affecting billions of people in today's globalized world. Although calories are essential to human health and survival, they cannot be seen, smelled, or tasted. They are also hard to understand. In Why Calories Count, Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim explain in clear and accessible language what calories are and how they work, both biologically and politically. As they take readers through the issues that are fundamental to our understanding of diet and food, weight gain, loss, and obesity, Nestle and Nesheim sort through a great deal of the misinformation put forth by food manufacturers and diet program promoters. They elucidate the political stakes and show how federal and corporate policies have come together to create an "eat more" environment. Finally, having armed readers with the necessary information to interpret food labels, evaluate diet claims, and understand evidence as presented in popular media, the authors offer some candid advice: Get organized. Eat less. Eat better. Move more. Get political.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A feast for the mind."--Nature

"The most succinct diet book ever written."--The Scientist

"People should read this book. They should read it if they are obsessive weight-watchers or serial dieters, or just concerned about what their children eat. They should read it if they work in public health, the food industry, catering, or education."--Times Higher Education

"Takes the science of calories and breaks it down for the rest of us."--San Francisco Chronicle

"This book will help dispel many of the commonly held myths we have about eating. An informative and interesting read for those who want to know the science behind calories, food and weight."

--Huffington Post Books

From the Inside Flap

"If you want to understand what's wrong with our eating habits, you must understand the central role that calories play. Nestle and Nesheim are two of the America's finest nutritionists-and this book explains, clearly and succinctly, why calories count. It is essential reading not only for people interested in food policy, but for everyone who wants to eat well and be well." -Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

"This superbly well-researched and scientifically sound book makes it clear how today's food environment often overrides physiological regulatory controls of body weight. Why Calories Count is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why so much about food choice lies in the hands of food marketers whose goal is to sell more products, not necessarily in the interests of public health." -Dr. David Kessler, author of The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite

"We need to understand what 'empty calories' are, so that we can feed our children food that is truly nourishing. On this topic, there is no better teacher than Marion Nestle, who writes with meticulousness, clarity and grace." -Alice Waters, author of The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution

"Thank god authorities like Nestle and Nesheim have teamed up to give us an epic view of a calorie: what it is, where it came from, what it means, how and why we count them. Thank god they've managed to decode nutritional science into a commonsense language we can all understand. And thank god they've put calories in their place in a wider cultural and political context to help us think meaningfully about the food our lives depend upon. I'm grateful." -Betty Fussell, author of Raising Steaks: The Life & Times of American Beef

"Calories. We all talk about them--many are even obsessed with them--but what do we really know about them? Not much. Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim's latest book changes all that, pulling back the curtain on calories and helping us understand them in a whole new light. You'll never look at a 100-calorie pack of corporate cookies the same way again." -Anna Lappé, author of Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 18, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520262883
• ISBN-13: 978-0520262881
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding book about the humble little calorie March 11, 2012

By Craig...E

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was prepared to spend most of my time skimming this book for useful information while avoiding the boring parts that often encumber these kinds of texts, but I read this one cover to cover in just a few days. In fact, as I was reading it and nearing the end I tweeted:
"Sad that I'm almost done reading 'Why Calories Count.' It's so good that I don't want it to end. Really." (@weighthacker)

That's because Why Calories Count is the fascinating story of what calories are, how they were discovered, how they're measured (my favorite way: using 'double labeled water' calorimeters), how our bodies use them, why they're important to us, how they affect our weight, and how our society views them. If you're at all interested in the calorie, I don't think you'll find a better book.

What I especially appreciate about Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim's approach is that they don't (ahem) sugar coat anything. When information about certain aspects of calories is unclear, they say that. If there are conflicting points of view on a topic, they raise them. If food companies are employing deceitful practices (they are), they're pointed out. They also explain how the regulations around calories came into being and how politics often plays more of a role than science when it comes to our nutrition labels. It's not as dry as it sounds.

All of the information is put into the context of why we're experiencing record levels of obesity and being overweight, and what we can actually do about it. This isn't a diet book, but it does look at many of the popular diets out there and explains why they work and which one is for you. (Why: You eat fewer calories. Which One: Any one that helps you eat fewer calories....) If you're trying to lose weight or know someone who is, this is a must read. Read more ›

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars THE book for laypeople May 17, 2012

By Dimmer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am not a layman but a cardiologist and my patients often get misinformation from a variety of garbage / misinformed dietary and nutrition popular books. This book is excellent with no grandiose claims but real information about calories and how one can understand them and make sense (or the lack of it) of all the other books out there which are hype with no real content or evidence based data. This is the only book they really need.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A truth tale of food and society. Powerful and much needed. April 15, 2012

By GskFn

Format:Hardcover

Brilliance crackles in the pages of Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim's "Why Calories Count." The authors, who are professors of food science (and Nestle also in sociology) at NYU and Cornell respectively, deliver a plain-English presentation for non-scientists. They unpack what is a calorie in physical terms, and how calories relate to food from different sources - carbohydrate, protein, fat, and alcohol. They survey alternative theories and folk notions about what makes weight loss or weight gain happen. Contrary to "lowfat" and "low-carb" diet advocates and food marketers, Nestle and Nesheim reaffirm, loudly and clearly, a long-held scientific proposition: that calorie balancing, not food composition, overwhelmingly determines weight gain, weight loss, and weight steadiness.

That makes a good book right there. But "Why Calories Count" does a whole lot more. In just a couple-hundred pages of prose that is colorful, reasonable, and easy-to-read, Nestle and Nesheim unfurl a scientific detective story about food and society. They cut through a lot of dieting mythology and food marketers' hype. They expose troubling trends in eating as a matter of public health. And they reveal clear-eyed solutions to better eating that are available to individuals.

Standing on sound science, the book stages a drama about food and society in America against a 125-year historical backdrop. The protagonist is the American food consumer - sometimes overeater and sometimes dieter - who is driven by personal taste, biology, and good intentions at times. The cast of characters includes: food scientists, professional nutritionists, and diet marketers; farmers, agribusiness, and food marketers; restaurants; and food policymakers in federal, state, and local governments....

One problem the authors clear up in this book is a lack of public understanding for what a calorie is. Early in the story, the star is Wilbur Atwater, a 19th-century chemist and public health advocate whose work on food and calories stands almost unaltered today, more than 100 years after his last days in the laboratory. The book's history-of-science stories about food studies, including the technology used to understand calories over the years, makes the idea of "calories" - in food and in the body - something you really can picture. One can almost imagine building a lab-quality "calorimeter" in a home or restaurant kitchen after reading this book. Not that you'd want to, though. And not that you'd need to. On the question of how to estimate calories, the authors emphasize that the basic estimates are mostly good enough, using published lists and online databases, along with a food scale and measuring cups.

The one place you'll want to be skeptical of published calorie counts is on restaurant menus that state calorie estimates. Federal and local laws give restaurants a lot of leeway on calorie postings. Not surprisingly, they tend to lowball their estimates. Sometimes the real counts are double what the menu says! (p. 215). This makes it tricky when eating out because it's very hard to estimate calories without knowing what all is in the food, and in what proportions. The details of restaurant food ingredients and measurements belong to the restaurant owner and the kitchen staff, not the patron who eats the meal. Even professional nutritionists come to grief when they try to estimate the calories in restaurant meals: they typically underestimate by about 30%. (p. 187) Add the fact that Americans of all ages are eating out much more than ever before, and you've got a public health challenge that Nestle and Nesheim tackle head-on in this book. They blame our "eat more" environment.

On the subject of obesity and public health, the authors have a lot to say. Obesity in America and worldwide has risen sharply in recent decades. From 1975 to 2008, the rate of obesity in America jumped from 13% to 34%. (p. 141) One group of experts at Harvard University predicts the rate of obesity in the U.S. will balloon to 42%.

Nestle and Nesheim summarize the health risks of obesity: "Concerns about obesity would not be so pronounced if this condition were simply a matter of appearance. Excessive calorie intake does not always cause disease, but when it does the problems can be serious. And the list of such problems is long, including such leading causes of death and disability as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers (endometrial, breast, colon), stroke, liver, and gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, osteoarthritis, and gynecological problems such as abnormal menses and infertility. (p. 140-41)

How does a person slim down? This is not a "diet book" per se, but it certainly can help any dieter or mindful eater. The authors recognize that many readers are concerned to identify which diets work, which don't, and why. Nestle's and Nesheim's answer to that is strewn throughout the book and highlighted in chapter 20, entitled, "Do Some Kinds of Diets Work Better Than Others?" Their answer is that while some diets are more nourishing and advisable than others, *any* diet in controlled portions can bring about weight loss if the dieter expends more calories than he or she eats. Food professionals and the public have heard this sort of message time and again for more than a hundred years, beginning with Wilbur Atwater. The key is calorie balancing and creating a deficit to lose weight. But for reasons that Nestle and Nesheim unravel, calorie balancing is very difficult for most people to manage directly. Many diet prescriptions may help dieters achieve calorie regulation through indirect means.

From the standpoint of sound nutrition and calorie balancing success, the authors endorse good-old "moderation" for those who are able to get by on that maxim. And they look with qualified favor on low-sugar diet strategies (p. 170-72). For some people, a simple rule of moderation is sufficient to regulate calories and balance one's weight appropriately. The authors say they, personally, "are lucky enough to be able to stop when we've had enough. If you can't do that - and we know many people who can't - choosing foods with a low glycemic index (those low in rapidly absorbable sugars and starches) is always a good idea, as is setting some limits on the size and frequency of desserts and sugary drinks. Everything is fine in moderation. But if you can't do moderation, you had best figure out some limits you can live with." (p. 222)

If scientists have known for so long that calorie balancing is the biological mechanism underlying weight management, why don't people just do it? Successful food marketers and restauranteurs know part of the answer to that. (p. 184-5) "Why Calories Count" cites Brian Wansink's excellent book on food and marketing psychology, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (2006). For one, Americans have come to eat out more often, and expect larger servings. At home too, larger portions of everything has become the norm. Food ubiquity and eating frequency have increased, and food industry marketing has intensified the allure of the call to "eat more." Research shows that the food industry has turned even health-seeking eaters into gluttons through the "health halo" effect. This is a paradox where people who choose snack foods with healthy-sounding labels (low-calorie or lowfat) wind up eating larger portions - so much more that they wind up eating more calories in the end! Everywhere, outside the home and inside, larger portions prevail.

Faced with this, human biology is ill-suited. The evolutionary process of natural selection, having taken place over a ga-zillion years, has not prepared us for this very recent environment. Nestle and Nesheim make this point throughout the book: "The human body does a superb job of making sure that it gets enough calories to meet biological needs but is much less effective at knowing when calories are in excess. The result is that it is much easier for you and everyone else to overeat than to stop eating when you are no longer hungry." (p. 78)

Elsewhere they put a still heavier point on social drivers to overeating that overcome biology in modern life: "In food environments that aggressively promote overconsumption of high-calorie foods, the `eat more' signals overpower those that promote satiety. In such environments, matters largely beyond personal control - the presence of other people, the location of meals, how often meals appear, how large food portions might be, how tasty the foods are, and how they are advertised - are remarkably effective at overcoming physiological regulatory mechanisms." (108-9).

Once someone has put on extra pounds, biology works against the dieter's best intentions. "Some people can handle the temptations of an `eat more' food environment and remain relatively thin, but many others cannot and find it all too easy to consume more calories than they need." (p. 172)

The emphasis here on biology is interesting, relevant, and clarifying. At the same time, I take Nestle and Nesheim to be giving short shrift to the *psychology* of overeating. They say you can't change your biology, and that may be true; but you can re-learn new habits and re-arrange some aspects of your eating environment - especially at home. Biology and psychology are related and do overlap, but they're not the same thing. Different mechanisms are at work in natural selection and learned habits. The resulting solutions may be different.

Barbara Rolls, creator of the Volumetrics diet, is cited in "Why Calories Count" (p. 220) as one example of a popular diet that teaches people to "eat less." Rolls, a professor of nutritional studies at Pennsylvania State University, writes in her latest book, The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet: Smart, Simple, Science-Based Strategies for Losing Weight and Keeping It Off (2012) that the psychology of eating is thrown off track in pursuit of food volume - even though she would agree fully with Nestle and Nesheim that calories are the body's bottom line for weight regulation. (p.22) Rolls suggests ways to seize the volume bias and make it work in the dieter's favor. This is one example of a psychological maneuver that Nestle and Nesheim's model squeezes out of the picture by jumping too quickly from a society-level analysis of food supply and marketing down to physiology and genetics. They skip psychology. Or worse, perhaps they glibly imply its reduction to physiology, which I doubt. (See pages 78, 101, 108-9, 183-5, 226, and 234.) That one aspect of the book is not very good science. It also leaves something to be desired in terms of realizing the book's full promise as a resource for public health advocacy.

Nestle and Nesheim do make fleeting references to food psychology (p. 184-5). When they do, they talk mostly about problems, not solutions. Where they do recommend non-biological solutions is at a societal level of food economics and regulatory politics. I certainly see value in the political discussion they raise. I'm glad for the introduction to it in "Why Calories Count," and I look forward to following Marion Nestle's public advocacy on this. She has held a well-deserved place as a national leader pressing for better public health through food regulatory policy.

Recognizing the book's rigor, incisiveness, and anyone-can-read clarity on the very important theme of calorie balancing, I give "Why Calories Count" five stars, despite my disappointment about its slippery handling of food psychology. Overall, this book is excellent, original, and badly needed. General readers as well as food professionals will understand it and appreciate the keep-it-real prose. Some readers may draw a sigh of relief to have solid clarity brought to bear on conflicting discussions of foods and diets. At base, the message is simple and more than a hundred years old: calories count. The question this book goes a long way toward answering is why we've had trouble with that. Suggestions as to what we can do to remedy the situation are begun in the book, and warrant further pursuit at the levels of society ("politics" and sociology) and individual behavior (food psychology and dietary advice) to help consumers resist "eat more" marketing and achieve calorie balancing. Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Cuts thru the nonesense April 15, 2012

By Stephen Sykes

Format:Hardcover

In a world of confusing food claims and conflicting diet recommendations, "Why Calories Count" is a refreshingly dispassionate look at the science of human nutrition. The book is clear, exhaustively researched and has extensive end notes, so the reader can pursue individual topics in more detail, if desired.

The authors effectively argue that most diet claims are flimsily based on untrustworthy research, and that the only thing that counts when it comes to weight control is calorie count. The problem is that hardly anyone knows their caloric needs and can estimate the caloric content of their food. Hence, people are open to exaggerated food claims and crazy diets.

There are several amusing anecdotes, my favorite of which involves experiments demonstrating that people have an intuitive belief that certain "healthy" foods have negative calories. For example, if asked to estimate the number of calories of a bowl of chili with and without a side salad, they estimate that the chili with salad has fewer calories when, in fact, it has more. Even nutritionists guess wrong!

The other topic I appreciated was a clear explanation of why high fructose corn syrup is such a danger. The authors' explanation exposes as deception the oft-televised claim that the body can't tell the difference between HFCS and sugar. I think that after you read this passage, you'll ban sweetened drinks from your home forever.

If I had to quarrel with any aspect of the book it would be the estimates of exercise output, which differ from most contemporary online calculators. I don't know who is correct. I'll just offer that there is a conflict....

For readers interested in fitness, this book pairs nicely with Tom Venuto's "The Body Fat Solution", which puts together a fitness regime consistent with the nutrition principles in this book. They could be sold together. Read more ›