Over the years, Nestle\u2019s blunt nutrition advice, sharp criticism of food companies and frequent media appearances made her one of the most recognisable names in nutrition. In 2006, she published one of her most popular books, What to Eat, which showed consumers how to navigate supermarkets and improve their health by deciphering food labels.<\/p>\n
At age 89, Nestle, who lives in New York City and Ithaca, is still going strong. In November, she published her latest book: What to Eat Now: The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters.<\/p>\n
We wanted to know how Nestle\u2019s knowledge of nutrition and the food industry affects her daily food decisions. So we caught up with her to find out what she eats in a typical day, which foods she loves and avoids, which \u201cjunk foods\u201d she can\u2019t resist, and whether she takes supplements or has advice on how to navigate grocery stores. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
Q: What\u2019s your general approach to food?<\/b><\/p>\n
I follow Michael Pollan\u2019s famous mantra: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. And I define food as being unprocessed or as minimally processed as possible. Not ultra-processed. I really think that takes care of it. That doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m perfect. I\u2019m an omnivore. I eat everything. I just don\u2019t eat very much in part because metabolism drops with age, and I don\u2019t have much metabolism left.<\/p>\n
I eat pretty healthy, but I don\u2019t obsess about it. If I have a bad day of eating, I don\u2019t worry about it. By this time, it\u2019s pretty clear I\u2019m not going to die prematurely. Obviously, what I\u2019m eating is working for me because I\u2019m 89 and I\u2019m still here.<\/p>\n
Q: What do you eat for breakfast?<\/b><\/p>\n
I start with coffee between 8 and 9am. I\u2019ll have a couple cups of weak coffee with milk, no sugar. And then I\u2019m at work. That\u2019s when I do my writing. I don\u2019t get hungry until about 10:30 or 11 a.m. That\u2019s when I\u2019ll usually have oatmeal or unsweetened Post Shredded Wheat cereal. It basically has one ingredient: wheat. I like the texture of Shredded Wheat and the way that it tastes. I add a little brown sugar, not much. I use a lot less sugar than what\u2019s in presweetened cereals. And then I\u2019ll add blueberries or whatever fruit is in season. That combination to me is really appealing.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never believed any of the research on breakfast being the most important meal of the day. Most of that was sponsored by cereal companies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q: What about lunch?<\/b><\/p>\n
My lunches are totally irregular. Sometimes I\u2019ll have a salad for lunch. Or if I\u2019m having lunch with someone then I\u2019ll eat whatever is in the restaurant. If I\u2019m at home in New York City, I\u2019ll harvest whatever is growing on my terrace. The peaches, cherries, raspberries and blueberries that I was growing are long gone. But I\u2019ve still got some lettuce and tomatoes, so I\u2019m going to go out and pick those. I might cut up some cheese or have it with peanuts. And I might have some bread with that.<\/p>\n
Q: What about dinner?<\/b><\/p>\n
It depends. I just don\u2019t eat that much. But I do really like salads. I can have salads twice a day. If I\u2019m at home, I might have an egg. I might have crackers and cheese with that. I kind of like making meals based on what I have available. So, it depends on what I bought, what\u2019s in the house, or what\u2019s on the terrace. That\u2019s my favourite way of cooking. We have a garden in Ithaca, there\u2019s a garden on my terrace, and there\u2019s a farmers market not very far from here.<\/p>\n
I also go to a lot of neighbourhood restaurants. I\u2019m going to Mark Bittman\u2019s restaurant this week \u2013 the kitchen that he started in the East Village where people pay according to their income. I\u2019ll eat whatever they\u2019re serving. One restaurant that I like a lot is il Buco Alimentari & Vineria. I love going there. They have a particular salad that I adore. It\u2019s always so crisp, and they have wonderful pasta dishes.<\/p>\n
Q: What are some foods that you love?<\/b><\/p>\n
Fortunately, I like a lot of very simple foods. I like vegetables. I like eggs. I like cheese. I do eat some ultra-processed foods. But not a lot of them. I don\u2019t like ultra-processed foods that have a long list of ingredients. Most of those don\u2019t taste good to me. I do really like vegetables. I like the crunch, the flavours, and the colours. That makes it easy to eat healthy.<\/p>\n
But I recognise that I\u2019m privileged. I weigh basically what I weighed when I was in high school. I don\u2019t have a weight problem. And I have an enormous amount of sympathy for people who do. I consider myself extremely fortunate. Is it genetics? I have no idea. My father died of a heart attack at the age of 47. He was an obese three-pack-a-day smoker. It\u2019s hard to know where genetics fits into this.<\/p>\n
Q: Do you have any favourite treats or desserts?<\/b><\/p>\n
Ice cream. When I\u2019m at home in New York City, I try to find ginger ice cream, which I like very much. It\u2019s hard to find. But when I find it, I buy it. And then my partner and I make homemade vanilla ice cream in Ithaca. It\u2019s only three or four ingredients. It\u2019s ruined other ice creams for me because a lot of commercial ice creams have all these emulsifiers in them that keep the ice cream sticking together. Real ice cream completely falls apart if it\u2019s left at room temperature and not eaten right away. It separates and liquefies. But I like that. I think it tastes better and has a better texture than the commercial ice creams that have emulsifiers. I like ice cream without the emulsifiers.<\/p>\n
Q: What about snacks?<\/b><\/p>\n
I like corn chips. Not too salty. Some corn chips are ultra-processed, although most are not. The ones I like are Wegmans. They only have a few ingredients \u2013 just corn, oil and salt basically. I also like candy, particularly See\u2019s Candies. The one See\u2019s candy store in New York is just a couple of blocks away from me. I normally get the peanut brittle. Sometimes the lollipops. I can have these things in the house and not feel like I have to eat all of them all at once. Not everyone can do that.<\/p>\n
Q: Can you tell us about your new book?<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s called What to Eat Now. It\u2019s the updated edition of What to Eat, which was published 20 years ago. It\u2019s a completely rewritten book. I thought it was going to be a six-month project, and it ended up taking me four years because so much has changed in grocery stores. There\u2019s been a huge turnover in products. For example, \u201cfunctional waters\u201d that contain vitamins, minerals, cannabis, supplements and other things have replaced Coca-Cola and plain water. Plant milks are new. The only plant milk that existed 20 years ago was soy milk. Now there are tons of others. Plant-based meats did not exist 20 years ago \u2013 at least not in the way that they do now.<\/p>\n
Q: What is one takeaway from the book?<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a book about personal diets. It\u2019s a book about how to think about food issues. I think what to eat now boils down to eat food, not too much, mostly plants.<\/p>\n
Q: Do you take any supplements?<\/b><\/p>\n
I don\u2019t take supplements because I eat a healthy diet. I don\u2019t think I need them. But two out of three Americans take supplements. They make people feel better \u2013 and it\u2019s hard to argue with that. Life is tough. If all it takes is a supplement to make you feel better, then I\u2019m not going to argue with that. I used to be much more upset about supplements. But now it\u2019s clear to me that they make people feel better. Whether that\u2019s because they\u2019re doing something or because they\u2019re a placebo, it\u2019s hard to know.<\/p>\n
But I don\u2019t trust what\u2019s in them. There\u2019s so much evidence that what the label says isn\u2019t what\u2019s actually in them. Many studies have found that a remarkable percentage of supplements do not actually contain what\u2019s listed on their labels. I don\u2019t want to put something in my body if I don\u2019t know what\u2019s in it. And there are things in supplements that are not supposed to be there \u2013 that\u2019s what so many studies have found. It\u2019s not true of all supplements. But it\u2019s very hard to know which ones are okay and which ones are not. So I don\u2019t take any of them.<\/p>\n
Q: Do you have any advice for our readers?<\/b><\/p>\n
Eating healthfully in today\u2019s society is very difficult because you\u2019re fighting an entire food industry on your own \u2013 and that industry is trying to sell you the most profitable, least healthy foods available. But one thing you can do is read food labels. There\u2019s a lot of information on them. If you\u2019re looking at a packaged food and you can\u2019t recognise the ingredients, or if you can\u2019t purchase the ingredients at a supermarket, then it\u2019s ultra-processed. There are certain ingredients that are indicators of ultra-processed foods. That would be colour additives, flavour additives, and emulsifiers such as mono and diglycerides, polysorbates and carrageenan, and texturisers such as agar. I always read food labels. If something has a lot of artificial additives and ingredients that I don\u2019t recognise, then I\u2019m not going to eat it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the years, Nestle\u2019s blunt nutrition advice, sharp criticism of food companies and frequent media appearances made her…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":367699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[177617,600,5350,177622,1022,261,15168,2385,177620,4641,990,2606,210,9809,1412,59136,720,45868,60616,177621,1182,106181,177623,58644,177619,177618,1399,67,132,68,640],"class_list":{"0":"post-367698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-177617","9":"tag-advice","10":"tag-at","11":"tag-blunt","12":"tag-books","13":"tag-companies","14":"tag-criticism","15":"tag-day","16":"tag-eats","17":"tag-expert","18":"tag-food","19":"tag-have","20":"tag-health","21":"tag-heres","22":"tag-in","23":"tag-made","24":"tag-marion","25":"tag-most","26":"tag-names","27":"tag-nestles","28":"tag-nutrition","29":"tag-popular","30":"tag-recognisable","31":"tag-sharp","32":"tag-she","33":"tag-shes","34":"tag-top","35":"tag-united-states","36":"tag-unitedstates","37":"tag-us","38":"tag-what"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115521804403184204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}