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WHY CALORIES COUNT: FROM SCIENCE TO POLITICS By Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim Berkeley (CA): University of California Press, 2012 303 pp.; $29.95
Addressing the rising prevalence of obesity, Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim deliver a simple but timely message in Why Calories Count. The most important determinant of what we weigh is the amount of energy in the food we consume, and that energy is measured in calories. Until Americans better understand the basic science of calories, and the nation grapples successfully with the convoluted politics, widespread problems with excess body weight will persist throughout the nation.
Combining meticulous scholarship and a rare ability to make complicated biological processes understandable to nonscientists, the authors devote the first half of the book to a systematic look at the scientific underpinnings of the calorie-weight relationship. Nestle, a familiar voice in food policy discussions, is the Paulette Goddard Professor...