Latest from Food Politics: Weekend reading: It's all your fault

Nick Chater & George Loewenstein.   It’s On You: How the Rich and Powerful have convinced us that we’re to blame for society’s deepest problems.   WH Allen, 2026.   345 pages. This book directly addresses an issue I’ve fussed about for ages: ...

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By Marion Nestle May 01 2026 Weekend reading: It’s all your fault Nick Chater & George Loewenstein.  It’s On You: How the Rich and Powerful have convinced us that we’re to blame for society’s deepest problems.  WH Allen, 2026.  345 pages. This book directly addresses an issue I’ve fussed about for ages: putting the blame for poor diets on individuals and ignoring the social and political forces that make eating healthfully so difficult and expensive. As I like to put it, if you are trying to eat healthfully in today’s food environment, you are fighting an entire food system on your own. Chater and Loewenstein take on much more than diets; their book deals with such matters as pollution, climate change, health care, and inequality from the standpoint of how the issues are framed: i-frame (individual behavior is at fault) versus s-frame (the system makes healthy choices impossible). As they put it, Instead of making people fat and then providing them with expensive drugs to curb their appetites, clearly our first collective priority should be to tackle the root cause of obesity—and this means a radical overhaul of how the food industry is regulated, taxed, and subsidized, and reversing the trend toward energy-dense, high processed foods and drinks deliberately engineered to be as difficult to stop consuming as possible.  This means forcing the food industry, through regulations or financial incentives, to create and market products that promote, rather than damage, human health.  p. 76. How can we do better?…We’ll see that the answer is not primariy about inventing new, innovative policies: For most of the problems we have discussed, there are examples of successful policies implemented in other countriesthat could provide almost off-the-shelf solutions.  Social and environmental problems exist not because we can’t figure out how to solve them, but because powerful interests benefit from the status quo.  So the key question is how to build support for, and to frame, those policies in ways that can attract the coalition of support required to drive change.  p. 209. We’ve seen throughout this book that rigged rules, not flawed individuals, lie at the heart of many of society’s most persisstent problems.  But if this is right, a natural question arises: Why aren’t the rules reformed to work in the intersts of the many, not the few, given that in a democracy the many have, by definition, the majority of the votes?  The answer, as we gave seebm us that the demoncratic process has been hacked by the powerful and wealthy.  This corrupting influence of power and money on politics is an ever present threat…. p.259 We’ve argued in this book that many of our most pressing and persistent social and environmental problems remain unsolved not because we don’t collectively know how to solve them, but because powerful interests beneft from their not being solved.  Indeed, the powerful typicallt do everything they can to ensure that the rules of the game are rigged in their favor….multinational food companies use their influence to expand their global markets for unhealthy ultraprocessed foods and to push back against legislative restrictions aimed at improving public health….  p. 271 This is an important argument, one that bears endless repeating—along with action to change the system. Get money out of politics! The post Weekend reading: It’s all your fault appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle      Related Posts Announcing: Sugar Coated (September 2026) Weekend Reading: The Heart-Shaped Tin The What to Eat Now spinoffs: miracles of AI?   Now Available: What to Eat Now My new book, What to Eat Now, is officially out! It's both a field guide to food shopping in America and a reflection on how to eat well—and deliciously. For more information and to order, click here. You can explore the full archive of this (almost) daily blog at foodpolitics.com, where you'll also find information about my books, articles, media interviews, upcoming lectures, favorite resources, and FAQs. Visit the Site » ​​​​​​​ Marion Nestle Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, Emerita © Marion Nestle. You're receiving this email because you've signed up to receive updates from us. If you'd prefer not to receive updates, you can unsubscribe. Safely Unsubscribe • Archives • Preferences • Contact • Subscribe • Privacy

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April 2026 NewsletterHi read,April just flew by! I hope you all are getting outdoors a lot with your kids and enjoying the spring weather. 🌷📄 Recommended Resource:A friend recently introduced me to the Daylight computer. It is a new kind of tab

April 2026 Newsletter Hi read, April just flew by! I hope you all are getting outdoors a lot with your kids and enjoying the spring weather. 🌷 📄 Recommended Resource: A friend recently introduced me to the Daylight computer. It is a new kind of tablet that does not expose the eyes and brain to blue light. It also can be easily used outside due to the unique screen that is not backlit. It has completely eliminated the eye strain I always feel at the end of a long work day on my laptop! I was so impressed that I emailed them and asked for a discount code to share with all of you parents, because I know you're concerned about the amount of screen time that your children get in a day at school and relaxing at home. The Daylight Kids computer is a great option. You can use code OUTDOORKIDS to get $50 off. (We don't make anything when you buy- this is just a discount for you.) If you get one, have your kid to go outside and get some vitamin D in the sun while using it. 😎 🌳 OKOT Story & Service Updates In clinic settings, occupational therapists do a LOT of intentional activities to try to give children “multi-sensory” experiences. But outdoors, this happens so naturally. Kids have a way of finding small creatures when we're out in the woods! Last summer there was a day when the kids found SO MANY creatures! There were bugs, a variety of frogs, and this tiny mouse. Being with these small creatures taught the kids body awareness, motor control, and empathy for living things in a natural way that could never have happened in an indoor setting (where these sensory experiences would have had to be manufactured in some way.) We love nature-based therapy! 😊 Service Updates:  FALL SERVICES ARE NOW OPEN FOR ENROLLMENT! Apply now to secure your ideal times/dates.  You can check out our current 1:1 outdoor OT services here. You can check out our current outdoor OT group services here. You can register your child for SUMMER CAMP here. There are a few spots left! (Dates/locations/ages are below for ease of reference.)   Cheers, Laura Park Figueroa Founder, OKOT VISIT OUR WEBSITE   For ease of reference, here are all of the camp dates & locations (with age ranges): WISCONSIN June 15-19 Token Creek (Ages 4-7) June 29-July 3 Glen Oak Hills (7-10) July 6-10 Glen Oak Hills (4-7) July 13-17 Token Creek (7-10) July 20-24 Glen Oak Hills (4-7) July 27-31 Token Creek (7-10) Aug 3-7 Glen Oak Hills (7-10) Aug 10-14 Token Creek (4-7)   SAN FRANCISCO June 8-12 Presidio (Ages 4-7) June 15-19 Presidio (7-10); McLaren (4-7) June 22-26 Presidio (7-10); McLaren (7-10) June 29-July 3 Presidio (4-7) July 6-10 Presidio (4-7 & 7-10) July 13-17 Presidio (7-10); McLaren (4-7) July 20-24 Presidio (4-7); McLaren (7-10) July 27-31 Presidio (7-10); McLaren (4-7)   EAST BAY June 8-12 Joaquin Miller (Ages 7-10) June 15-19 Joaquin Miller (7-10) June 22-26 Joaquin Miller (4-7) June 29-July 3 Tilden (7-10) July 6-10 Joaquin Miller (4-7 & 7-10) July 13-17 Joaquin Miller (7-10 & 7-10) July 20-24 Joaquin Miller (4-7 & 4-7) July 27-31 Tilden (4-7) 2930 Domingo Avenue #1092 Berkeley, California 94705, USA Unsubscribe or Manage Preferences here. No hard feelings!