Marion Nestle's book, What to Eat, is the modern encyclopedia of food issues. Not only is this a hefty book, a total of 612 pages in length, but it is complete and thorough. This is the one book we can turn to for clear and well-explained answers to most basic food purchase questions.

Marion Nestle is a professor of nutrition at New York University who has studied food networks and food marketing for decades. She's also achieved a modest fame for her role in the documentary, “Supersize Me.”

In meticulous detail, Nestle leads us through the oil-dependent food distribution system and the political minefield of food regulation. Her goal is to answer the consumers' most basic questions about the safety and nutritional value of organic and traditional produce, dairy products, bottled waters, packaged cold cereals, and dozens of other foods. She does a great job. Her expertise and insight results in clear and concise explanations.

Here are a few examples of her perspectives, taken from the pages of her book as she investigates the American food system:

*Pesticide-free produce may not look as pretty, but if you want fewer pesticides in your body and in the bodies of your children, buy organics.

*No matter what their labels say, all margarines are basically the same—mixtures of soybean oil and food additives. Everything else is theater and greasepaint.

*The USDA, an agency with primary responsibility for sales of American food commodities, is hardly likely to issue advice—to eat less meat, for example—that conflicts with its assigned mission.

*The best evidence that Organic Standards really do mean something—and are not so easy to achieve—comes from the unrelenting efforts to weaken them.

*Animal Care and United Egg Producers Certifications require some skepticism. You should not be surprised that 80 percent of industrial egg producers are certified this way. This certification merely attests that a company gives food and water to its caged hens.

*Marketing to children does more than make them want certain products; it is meant to change society. It aims to put kids in charge of decisions that you should be making. For this reason alone, marketing to children is worth opposing.

For her other ideas and explanations, you'll just have to read the book. And if you do read it, you'll understand the reasons for Nestle's disgust with the cynical and profit-driven aspects of the American food system—as well as the value of her practical suggestions for ways to avoid the worst of it.

What to Eat is available on order from the Moscow library, and at BookPeople.