About Marion Nestle

Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor, of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003 and from which she officially retired in September 2017.  She is also Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell.  She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Transylvania University in Kentucky (2012) and from the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College (2016).  In 2023, she was awarded The Edinburgh Medal (for science and society).

E-mail: marion.nestle@nyu.edu

Twitter: @marionnestle

Instagram @marionnestle

Office address

Department of Nutrition and Food Studies

New York University

411 Lafayette, 5th Floor

New York, NY 10003-7035

Biographical information

• C.V. (January 2024) click here.
• NYU faculty page with brief biography click here.

Representation

• Lectures and travel schedule: Steven Barclay Agency
• Literary agent: Max Sinsheimer at Sinsheimer Literary.”

Press materials and book copies

• Unsavory Truth: How the Food Industry Skews the Science of What We Eat:  Basic Books, 2018. Information: Kelsey.Odorczyk@hbgusa.com
• Let’s Ask Marion: What You Need to Know about the Politics of Food, Nutrition, and Health:  University of California Press, 2020: Information: alex.dahne@ucpress.edu.
• Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics: University of California Press, 2022.  Information: alex.dahne@ucpress.edu

See below for:

• Biographical information
• Personal conflict-of-interest policy
• Course syllabi
• Photos.  For additional photos, click here.

 

Brief biography: Her previous faculty positions were at Brandeis University and the UCSF School of Medicine. From 1986-88, she was senior nutrition policy advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services and editor of the 1988 Surgeon General’s Report on Nutrition and Health. Her research examines scientific and socioeconomic influences on food choice, obesity, and food safety, with an emphasis on the role of food industry influence.

Books

She is the author of six prize-winning books (among others):

• Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (2002, with updated editions in 2007 & 2013)
• Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety (2003, with an updated edition in 2010)
• What to Eat (2006)
• Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics, co-authored with Dr. Malden Nesheim (2012)
• Eat, Drink Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics (2013)
• Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning) (2015)

She also has written two books about pet food:

• Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine (2008)
• Feed Your Pet Right, also with Dr. Nesheim (2010)

Her first book was Nutrition in Medical Practice (1985).

Her most recent books:

• Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat. Basic Books, 2018.
• Let’s Ask Marion: What You Need to Know about the Politics of Food, Nutrition, and Health (with Kerry Trueman, University of California Press, 2020).
• Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics: University of California Press, 2022

Honors

Among her recent honors are the John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service from Bard College in 2010, the Public Health Hero award from the University of California School of Public Health at Berkeley in 2011, the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award in 2013, and the Innovator of the Year Award from the U.S. Healthful Food Council, and the Public Health Association of New York City’s Media Award in 2014.  In 2016, her book, Soda Politics, won literary awards from the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), and she was elected to membership in the Delta Omega Honorary Public Health Society.  She was honored with a Trailblazer Award from the IACP, the Grand Dame Award from Les Dames d’Escoffier, and Cherry Bombe’s Hall of Fame in 2018.  She is the recipient of the Hunter College Food Policy Center’s first Changemaker award and was appointed to Heritage Food Radio’s Hall of Fame in 2019.  In 2023, she was the recipient of the Edinburgh Medal, awarding during the City Council’s Science Festival.

From 2008 to 2013, she wrote a monthly Food Matters column for the San Francisco Chronicle food section. She blogs daily (almost) at www.foodpolitics.com, and tweets @marionnestle (named by Time Magazine, Science Magazine, and The Guardian as among the top ten in health and science).  She currently has more than 140,000 Twitter followers.

Conflict-of-interest policy for gifts and payments from food, beverage, or supplement companies 

For an explanation, see post on the topic.

• She accepts reimbursements from such companies for travel, hotels, meals, and meeting registrations on the grounds that she would otherwise not be able to attend.
• She does not personally accept honoraria, consulting fees, or any other financial payments from such companies.
• Instead, she asks the companies to make an equivalent donation to the NYU Library’s Food Studies collection (which is named after her) or to her NYU department’s fund for student travel.

Disclosure statement on journal articles:

Marion Nestle’s retirement and research funds from New York University support her research, manuscript preparation, and website at foodpolitics.com.  She earns royalties from books and honoraria and travel from lectures about matters relevant to this publication.

Course syllabi (most recent)

• Food System Policy: Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Spring 2021
• Food Systems Policies and Politics, Spring 2020
• Big Ideas: Food Politics in the Coronavirus Era, Fall 2020

Photographs