Instead, I did what I could manage at the time between raising kids and following my husband decisions, I tried to make the best of my circumstances.” Until she was hired by NYU, she recalls, “I had never thought about what kind of work I might want to do if I had choices.” Once she did have the opportunity to blaze a career trail as a critical analyst of the food industry, however, she did so with gusto.Ĭivil Eats spoke to Nestle (who also sits on Civil Eats’ advisory board) the day before her 86th birthday about her impressive career in food politics and nutrition science, her experiences influencing nutrition policy behind the scenes, and how she overcame the barriers and biases facing the women of her generation to find her life’s purpose after 50. I wish I had been able to pursue this goal right from the start. Nestle writes, “I knew early on that I loved food and wanted to study it. But it was her 2002 book, Food Politics, that marked a turning point in her life, when she was 66. Department of Health and Human Services, and became the chair of the Department of Home Economics and Nutrition at New York University (NYU) in 1988. San Francisco, served as a senior nutrition policy adviser for the U.S. She later became a professor in biology and nutrition science at U.C.

Ten years later, divorced with two children, she decided to resume her studies.

In the book, Nestle recounts a challenging childhood crisscrossing the country and then quitting college to get married at 19.

Marion nestle new book