Marion Nestle was 66 years old when she wrote Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, the book for which she is most known. In her new memoir, she reflects on her career in nutrition and public health.
Nestle shares what it was like to come of age during a very different time, when women’s roles and expectations were quite different than they are today. Growing up with two parents in the Communist party she says, “I liked the values that went with that. I liked the idea of equality, of fairness, and of everybody having a shot at education. And everybody having a shot at a life that was fulfilling in some way.” At UC Berkeley, Nestle started as a dietetics major before moving to science, eventually finding her way to teaching nutrition and food policy.
Marion Nestle reflects on her late-in-life success and her journey to get there in “Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics.” Photo courtesy of University of California Press.