Reading Marion NestlesFood Politicswill make you feel like a speck in a universe of giants.

This is part of Lifehackersbook reviewseries.

Marion Nestleknows her food, and she knows her politics.

In this book, Nestle follows the money.

Were all cynical these days, but most of us just shrug and say corporate America is behind everything.

And in the next breath, well insist that were impervious to their influence.

But Nestle calls us out on that.

Her 500-page tome, published in 2002, is dated but still very relevant to our world.

I read this book years ago, and recently revisited the anniversary edition to see whats changed.

They also have, historically, launched huge campaigns against guidelines that portrayed their products in unfavorable ways.

Working the System, about the food industrys tactics in other areas.

Think of the Got Milk campaign.

Since these groups are sometimes indistinguishable from lobbying groups, the government is essentially lobbying itself.

This section also includes industrys funding of nutrition professionals activities.

Theres also a timeline of the decades-long attempt to makeOlestrahappen.

There is also an appendix giving the facts on hot-button issues in nutrition research.

Theres a table in the conclusion that makes for a pretty good summary of what the book is about.

An earlier chapter detailed how the pyramid itself was acompromise between these concerns.

Every phrase in the guidelines, it seems, was carefully worded after weeks or years of debate.

Nestle unpicks those seams to show us what the guidelines are really made of.

Nestle shows us that food companies influence goes way beyond airing a few commercials.

The biggest surprise was seeing how complex the situation is, and how far back its story arcs go.

Nestle suggests some solutions, but theyre the kinds of things that you would expect from a food nanny.

Shes in favor of heavy regulations on advertising to children and on food labeling in general.

Nestle also has a very old-school approach to what a correct diet really should be.

There honestly arecontroversiesabout whether saturated fat and cholesterol are as bad as we used to think.

Even in recent years, she hasnt rejected the old thinking.

Shes not oblivious to new evidence, and in fact she posts about it very thoughtfully on her blog.

So I trust her thought process even though Im sometimes skeptical of her conclusions.

And for that, her perspective is an excellent one to read.

ConsiderFood Politicsyour historical on-ramp.