Marion Nestle Author Talk • Sugar Coated: Unboxing the Hidden Forces Shaping America's Favorite Breakfast Food

Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University and a Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. An internationally recognized expert on food policy and nutrition, her work explores the scientific, political, and corporate forces that shape what we eat.

She is the author or co-author of sixteen books, including the groundbreaking Food Politics, What to Eat, Soda Politics, Unsavory Truth, and her memoir, Slow Cooked. Her newest book is The Fish Counter, and What to Eat Now, a fully revised edition of What to Eat, will be published later this year.

A longtime public voice on food policy, Nestle writes the acclaimed Food Politics blog and has received numerous honors, including the James Beard Leadership Award and the 2023 Edinburgh Medal for contributions to science and the humanities.

Sugar Coated:  Unboxing the Hidden Forces Shaping America's Favorite Breakfast Food - World-renowned food politics expert Marion Nestle joins forces with former cereal executive Lisa Sutherland to examine what cereal boxes reveal about American culture and food politics.
 
If you want to understand how the food business works, just have a look at a box of breakfast cereal. Hardly anything on supermarket shelves is bigger, bolder, or more deliberately designed. The fiercely competitive industry that brings us Cheerios, Froot Loops, and Trix sells a distinctly American dream: indulgence and health in one convenient package.
 
Cereal boxes chronicle our shifting national obsessions with health, ingredients, dietary advice, and American culture. They show us what sells food: cartoons for kids, athletes for men, weight loss for women. And hidden in the history of cereal package designs, we find clues to the corporate lobbying that shapes agricultural policy, health claims, and labeling regulations.