Fresh Air Best Of: Nutritionist Marion Nestle / Science Writer Mary Roach
Nov 29, 2025
Join Marion Nestle, a renowned food policy scholar, as she discusses her updated guide for savvy shoppers, revealing how supermarkets manipulate us with marketing tactics. She dives into pressing topics like ultra-processed foods and their environmental impacts. Science writer Mary Roach, known for her quirky explorations of biology, shares groundbreaking insights from her latest work on transplant science, including innovations in animal organ donation and the controversial ethics of growing human organs in pigs. A fascinating blend of food politics and medical advances!
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Supermarkets Prioritize Sales Over Nutrition
- Supermarkets are optimized to sell as much food as possible, not to promote nutrition.
- Marion Nestle urges shoppers to recognize placement and marketing shape choices more than health considerations.
Use Placement Knowledge To Avoid Impulse Buys
- Watch product placement: slotting fees and endcaps push profitable, often unhealthy items to eye level.
- Avoid impulse buys by knowing stores place staples like milk at the back to route you past ultra-processed foods.
Ultra-Processed Foods Drive Overconsumption
- Ultra-processed foods contain many industrial additives and differ fundamentally from minimally processed items.
- Controlled trials show ultra-processed diets lead people to consume more calories than unprocessed diets.
