Keeping up with chocolate; the crisis and what to do about it The chocolate industry, it appears, is in crisis.  Here's my collection of recent items on the topic.   Trends The future of chocolate: An era of bold innovation and ultra indulgence: Chocolate is undergoing a dramatic transformation.…

How to explain glyphosate hypocrisy? Bayer’s lobbying and revolving door Here's one place where the MAHA and Food Justice movements agree: on glyphosate.  Here is a post from thefoodbabe (@Vani Hari): LOBBYING This refers to U.S. Right to Know's Bayer lobby tracker. Federal disclosures show Bayer…

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins 150th Anniversary Feeding the Future: Food, Climate, and Global Stability, 6:00 p.m. at Shriver Hall.  Register here. Join former White House Chef Sam Kass, who helped shape national conversations about nutrition and food policy; Samuel Myers of the Johns Hopkins Institute…

More MAHA hypocrisy in action: Dicamba, Mercury, and PFAS One of the major items on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's agenda has been to get toxic chemicals out of the food supply. He's not doing a good job on that. Last week, I discussed his hypocritical backtracking on glyphosate. Here, I…

The supplement industry: questions of safety, adulteration, corruption Since passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, supplement products became basically unregulated.  The FDA is no longer allowed to monitor these products and only gets involved in situations of…

New York: Columbia University Epidemiology Grand Rounds (CUEGR) Register to attend in person here.  Register to attend via Zoom here.

Weekend reading: My latest publication: Dietary guidelines: Brazil vs. U.S. I was invited by Brazilian colleagues to collaborate on a brief paper comparing the new US guidelines to those in Brazil. Neves FS, Nilson EAF, Mendes LL, Khandpur N, Nestle M.  The 2025-2030 US Dietary Guidelines: A…

Op-ed: Can the Food Justice Movement and MAHA Find Common Ground? Nick Freudenberg and I wrote this op-ed for Civil Eats to start a discussion of what we think is a topic that needs it. Can the Food Justice Movement and MAHA Find Common Ground? A cross-cutting food justice movement could improve…

R.I.P. Ray Goldberg, “the father of agribusiness” Ray Goldberg died last week at the age of 99.  He was still going pretty strong the last time I saw him last fall at the annual meeting of PAPSAC (Private and Public Scientific, Academic and Consumer Food Policy Group) at Harvard's Kennedy School.…

60 Minutes: RFK Jr on non-regulation of ultra-processed food On February 15, CBS News' Bill Whitaker interviewed RFK Jr, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, and journalist Michael Pollan about ultra-processed foods and what to do about them. Transcript of the entire program Michael Pollan clip…

Ithaca, NY: Cornell Public Health

MAHA hypocrisy in action: glyphosate RFK Jr may have lied to the Senate about vaccines, but it is now evident that he also lied to his supporters about getting toxic chemicals out of the food supply. Let's start here:  Well, it wasn't his USDA (he's Secretary of HHS), apparently. Now we have…

Weekend reading: Dietary Guidelines from the food industry’s perspective I subscribe to lots of food industry newsletters from the William Reed company, all of them written by top-notch reporters who cover topics thoroughly and accurately.  They write about things food companies need to know…

Why no opportunity for comments on this blog: an explanation Readers have asked---and expressed considerable frustration---that this blog does not accept comments.  An explanation seems in order. When I started doing this blog in 2007, I took comments and enjoyed the back-and-forth with readers.…

What should dietitians/nutritionists say about the new dietary guidelines? A reader writes (my edit to preserve requested anonymity): It's been quite the undertaking to update what to tell patients and clients about the new DGA.  So many resources I've always referred to with MyPlate, eating…

What’s happening with prices at the grocery store? If you think food prices are increasing, you are right. I've been sent an analysis from Trace One. Trace One says "grocery prices rose 0.7% in December, the largest one-month increase since October 2022—underscoring how food costs remain a major…

Industry-funded study of the week: Whole Milk and weight loss To many people, full-fat milk tastes better and is more satisfying, which is reason enough to prefer it.  But the "drink full-fat milk" advice in the new dietary guidelines doesn't make much sense to me.  Most of the nutrients in milk…

Weekend reading: The alcohol-free trend: it’s hot! I subscribe to Beverage Daily, an industry publication, to learn about current trends I might otherwise miss. I hadn't been paying much attention to the alchohol-free trend, other than to notice the astonishing rise in the number of flavored water…

Is the Dietary Guidelines’ prioritizing of meat about industry lobbying or personal ideology? In my post last week, "The government is actively promoting meat and dairy intake," I said The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans actively promote meat and dairy intake, especially full-fat dairy.  The…

FDA says food companies can claim “no artificial colors” if they use natural dyes. HHS issued a press release last week: FDA takes New Approach to "No Artificial Colors" Claims Companies will now have flexibility to claim products contain ‘no artificial colors’ when the products do…

The Super Bowl ads: Processed food kills I guess I have to say something about the Super Bowl ads. Much as I am in favor of eating real food and reducing ultra-processed foods, I was trained in science.  I would never go as far as this astonishing Super Bowl ad featuring Mike Tyson. The scientist…

New York: National Arts Club This is a book event.  The National Arts Club is at 15 Gramercy Park South.  For information, click here.  Register here.

Industry-influenced conference of the week: reducing methane emissions A reader, Harish Chintakunta, sent this suggestion for one of my Monday posts on conflicted science. Subject: UC Davis Methane Summit—A Case Study in Industry-Framed Science? Dear Dr. Nestle, ...UC Davis hosted a “State of the…

Weekend reading: Food education standards Food and nutrition education is hard to come by these days.  As Laura Reiley wrote in Civil Eats, The end of SNAP-Ed leaves underserved communities with even fewer resources.  The One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminated the program in July, giving program…

Online: UC Berkeley Food Politics and Policy 2026: A Conversation with Marion Nestle and Marion Standish.  Register HERE.   Note: 10:30 a.m. PST; 1:30 EST.

Recent events in pet food safety and ingredients If I counted right, the FDA oversaw 17 recalls of pet food and animal feed in 2025. The causes included Salmonella, Listeria, aflatoxin, bird flu, plastics, and "presence of particulate matter" Not yet on that list is an even more serious case…

The government is actively promoting meat and dairy intake The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans actively promote meat and dairy intake, especially full-fat dairy.  The USDA has long acted as a marketing arm of those industries through its research and promotion (checkoff) programs. But the…

The FDA’s promised work plan for 2026: ambitious, yes, but doable? I thought this post on X was well worth a follow up.  I went right to the site: Human Foods Program 2026 Priority Deliverables. Its vision: "to ensure that food serves as a vehicle for wellness." Its mission: "to protect and…

Industry-funded study of the week: avocados again The study: Effects of replacing solid fats and added sugars with avocado in adults with elevated cardiometabolic risk: a randomized, double-blind, controlled feeding, crossover trial.  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Volume 123, Issue…

Ithaca, NY: Autumn Leaves Books

SUNY Binghamton Register here.

Weekend Reading: The Heart-Shaped Tin Bee Wilson.  The Heart-Shaped Tin: Love, Loss, and Kitchen Objects.  Norton, 2025. 312 pages. I loved this book.  It was an unexpected pleasure from start to finish, and it completely changed the way I view the objects in my kitchen. Bee Wilson uses…

What’s happening with plant-based meat: a roundup Here's my most recent collection of items about plant- and cell-based meats, in an effort to try to figure out what is happening with the market for these products.  Prospects are not as bright as they were at the height of this trend, but these…

The infant formula scandals: will they ever stop? I'm not sure why we've seen so many problems with contaminated infant formula lately, but this must stop---and be stopped.  Infants who are not breast fed are dependent on formula.  Families buying formula for their infants assume it is safe.  If…

My latest publication: BMJ editorial on the dietary guidelines Politics trump science in new US dietary guidelines Evidence takes a backseat to conflicting interests in the latest health mandates BMJ 2026;392:s143 doi:  The new dietary guidelines1 and food pyramid2 issued by the US Departments of…

The sugar industry fights back With the new dietary guidelines taking such a strong stance on minimizing sugar intake, the sugar industry has its damage-control work cut out. Lisa Sutherland, my co-author on our forthcoming (September 2026) Sugar Coated: Unboxing the Hidden Forces Shaping…

Weekend reading: The Spinach King John Seabrook.  The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty.  Norton, 2025 (346 pages). This book is a memoir by New Yorker staff writer, John Seabrook, about his rich, unscrupulous, and bigoted grandfather and father but there is so much food…

Canada’s new food warning label! A reader, Doug Williams, alerted me to Canada's new food warning label.  Even better, he followed it up with a photo. Here's what the warning label looks like up close. Canada based the label on extensive consultation. For most foods, the warning label is required…

With the release of the new Dietary Guidelines, there’s even more noise than before about what food we should be eating and buying. @marionnestle.bsky.social's new book, "What to Eat Now," cuts through the confusion with no-nonsense info about how to make the healthiest, most sustainable choices:

“I’m all for eating whole foods, but these guidelines dismiss 75 years of research favoring diets higher in plant foods,” says @marionnestle.bsky.social, an emerita professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at @nyu.edu:

The MAHA Dietary Guidelines IV: Eat more meat ! by @marionnestle.bsky.social in #FoodPolitics www.foodpolitics.com/2026/01/the-...

Renowned nutritionist @marionnestle.bsky.social has mixed feelings on the nation's new dietary guidelines. She talks protein, whole grains, and expanding access to healthy foods on Public Health On Call. 🎧 podcast.publichealth.jhu.edu/998-marion-n...

Journal retracts paper exonerating glyphosate (Roundup) from any harm to humans. The journal, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, has retracted a major paper, one that "had a significant impact on regulatory decision-making regarding glyphosate and Roundup for decades."  The now-retracted…

Hudson, Ohio: Hudson Library and Historical Society Information here.  Register here.

RIP USDA’s Household Food Security reports Last September, the USDA said it would stop conducting the annual hunger survey, because they were "redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous.” As I said at the time, If you live in an Orwellian universe, you can use not measuring to pretend that…

Industry-influenced studies of the week: artificial sweeteners The new Dietary Guidelines have advised against consuming non-nutritive sweeteners despite research testifying to their harmlessness.  Much such research is funded by groups representing makers of artificial sweeteners, as these two…

The MAHA Dietary Guidelines VII: The Documents A brief note about the political history of the dietary guidelines.  When I was on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee in 1995, our committee selected the topics for review, reviewed the science, wrote the scientific report, and wrote the…

The MAHA Dietary Guidelines VI. Some Concluding Thoughts. Let's start with what I like about the 2020-2030 Dietary Guidelines and New Pyramid, taken together. Eat Real Food It's how I eat, and prefer to eat. It's consistent with Michael Pollan's Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants. Pollan's…

The MAHA Dietary Guidelines V. The Alcohol Non-Recommendation The Dietary Guidelines for America 2025-2030 simply say "Limit alcoholic beverages: Consume less alcohol for better overall health."  They go on to specify who should not drink alcohol. People who should completely avoid alcohol include…

The MAHA Dietary Guidelines IV: Eat more meat! The Eat Real Food Website says "We are ending the war on protein. Every meal must prioritize high-quality, nutrient-dense protein from both animal and plant sources...." But here's what comes up first and is clearly the first priority. And here's an…