Why Calories Count

“I like that Nestle empowers readers to understand larger social forces behind the food they’re eating, and then get right in and try to change them.”

— Hyphen

“A strong, rigorous overview of the calorie, its regulation and the politics behind food labeling and marketing.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“An encouraging and fascinating story about the mighty yet invisible calorie. . . . Particularly helpful is the section on various fad dieting strategies. And particularly encouraging is the flexible, understanding tone throughout the book. Nestle and Nesheim love to eat, and want you to enjoy the pleasures of good food too. . . . If you feel overwhelmed by conflicting diet claims or just want to be a better grocery shopper, Why Calories Count is for you.”

— Huffington Post/Healthy Living

“Both you and your students should read this book. . . . There is great breadth and the style is stimulating and provocative.”

— Amer Journal Clinical Nutrition

“Dr. Marion Nestle and Dr. Malden Nesheim’s Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics, is not a diet book selling you on the newest trend nor does it encourage you to count calories. Instead it does the seemingly impossible: it takes calories from the abstract to the concrete. Nestle and Nesheim explain the significance of the calorie not only in understandable scientific terms, but also in social terms with the explicit aim of helping their reader navigate the convoluted world of food labels and diet fads.”

— Civil Eats

“In their new book, Ms. Nestle and Malden Nesheim, both esteemed nutritionists, argue for the importance of calories. Along with offering a fascinating history, they show how an understanding of calorie needs saved lives in the global fight against hunger—and can save more from obesity.”

— Wall Street Journal/Bookshelf

“Meticulous scholarship and a rare ability to make complicated biological processes understandable to nonscientists. . . . A plate of fresh insights into the expanding American waistline, and policy’s proper role in shrinking it.”

— Health Affairs

“Neither a diet nor a weight-loss book, this scholarly, seriously researched work assists readers in evaluating diet claims, formulating strategies to lose, gain, or maintain weight, and learning how to make healthy food choices. Nestle and Nesheim focus on the history of the calorie and its relationship to body weight, the science behind metabolism, how to estimate calories in a given portion, and—what will probably be of most interest to the general reader—the role of big business in creating calorie-laden food and why it's less politically controversial to recommend exercising than cutting back on calories.”

— Library Journal

“Nestle and Nesheim are eminent scientists and excellent communicators. . . . What clearly differentiates this book from all others of its kind is the additional admonition for everyone to help ‘politicize’ calories, thereby making all people winners in the war against the obesity epidemic and its debilitating afflictions.”

— Choice

“Presents an interesting series of opinions and overviews that are deserving of a wider audience.”

— yum.fi

“Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics is far from a diet book. Authors Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim do an outstanding job of evaluating how a simple unit of energy becomes a confusing mess in the hands of diet purveyors, food manufacturers and unrealistic consumers.”

— Ft. Worth Star Telegram

“With its careful research, lighthearted tone, and eye-opening research, this book certainly lived up to my expectations.”

— Serious Eats

1. Start — as many of those involved in the food movement did — with Marion Nestle, the nutrition and policy guru and an all-around heroine. (Her daily blog, Food Politics, is always worth a look.) Put simply: eat per Marion’s advice and you’ll be eating better. (You’ll probably live longer, too, but as Marion might say, ‘the studies are incomplete.’)”

— New York Times

"Whether you're interested in the twin public health crises of obesity and malnutrition, curious about the process of digestion, or just looking for a scientifically supported path to a beach body, you should find Why Calories Count an enlightening read."

— Science

"Interesting questions are posed."

— Taste For Life