Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. NY: Houghton Mifflin; 2001. 383 pages, paperback, $13.95.

There are reasons why nutrition professionals are so timid about calling any food bad. As Marion Nestle notes, food companies influence nutrition professionals by sponsoring nutrition journals, nutrition consumer advocacy organizations, nutrition professional associations, nutrition conferences, nutrition research grants, nutrition Web sites and, best of all, nutrition departments at public and private colleges and universities.

The authors of the two books under review, however, are anything but timid when it comes to calling certain foods bad. They not only discuss bad foods, but bad food production practices, bad marketing strategies (to children), and bad, really bad, examples of corporate greed and ugly politicians.

It is easy to equate fast food with bad food. (I should know, I have eaten my share). Most fast food is high in fat, sugar, sodium, and/or calories, and low in nutrients and fiber. And Americans love it. Their spending on fast food increased more than 18-fold between 1970 and 2001, and more money is now spent on fast food, according to Eric Schlosser, than higher education, computers, computer software, and new cars. If that does not grab your attention, there is more money spent on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music-combined!!

It is not a coincidence that there has been a phenomenal increase in the weight of Americans during this same 30-year period. Now that two-thirds of the American population is overweight or obese, however, it is time to explore the systemic problems causing this fat epidemic and what we can do about it. No two books do it better than Fast Food Nation and Food Politics.

Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation is about much more than fast food. It is about poverty, real estate, franchising, food production, fat content in food, worker safety, workmen's compensation, advertising, the chemical flavor industry, community aesthetics, fast food restaurant crime, marketing to children, public schools, technology, politics, corporate power, the global economy, and obesity.

What is most interesting about Schlosser's book is how he relates these seemingly disparate topics so that you can easily understand how one relates to another. And within each topic are mind-boggling facts. For instance, did you know that criticizing food can put you behind bars? Fortunately for Oprah Winfrey-who bad-mouthed beef on her television show in 1996-her millions of dollars kept her from learning this fact the hard way. Those of us without the spare millions-beware!!

Did you know that Chicken McNuggets have twice the fat content of hamburgers? These small pieces of reconstituted chicken-held together by stabilizers and then breaded, fried, frozen and reheated-are still believed by most parents to have more health benefits for their children than red meat. Did you know that much of the taste and aroma of American fast food is manufactured at a series of large chemical plants off the New Jersey Turnpike? And that artificial and natural flavors contain the exact same chemicals, with only an arbitrary and bizarre distinction based on production methods separating them? Did you know that an industry group with a George Orwellian sense of humor calls itself the "Alliance for Workplace Safety," and its goal is to eliminate any governmental authority to impose fines or take any action whatsoever against workplace abuse? And did you know that employment safety rules for kids under age 16 working long hours in fast food restaurants and with hazardous machinery are routinely violated?

As American cities spend less on children's recreation, it is McDonald's restaurants-not parks-that have become gathering places for kids who like seesaws, slides, and pits full of plastic balls. Ninety percent of American children between the ages of 3 and 9 visit a McDonald's every month. And which fictional character besides Santa Claus has near universal recognition among American school children? You guessed it: Ronald McDonald!!

As American public schools have less money to spend on public education, corporate-sponsored services take up the slack. But there is no such thing as a free lunch, or free teaching materials for that matter. Corporate food- and drink-sponsored teaching materials include a bias toward their own product. And their product logos are found on the school's building, brochures, sportswear, vending machines, and cups.

Marion Nestle's Food Politics is also full of interesting facts. In 1917, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued its first set of dietary recommendations. Amazingly, most of the nutritional principles are still in operation almost a century later. Not so amazingly, nasty politics has been alive and healthy for 100 years as well. The recommendations of the USDA's first research director-to limit intake of fat and sugar-were left out of its earliest publications. A century later, in the industry-friendly climate of several recent administrations, government-sponsored research publications still can't recommend limited intake of fat and sugar, nor any other food item for that matter.

Nestle describes how lobbyists befriend federal officials and lavish politicians with campaign contributions and then participate in the development of legislation in their own self-interest. Federal officials, in turn, become so chummy with food companies that many of them become high-paid lobbyists for these very same companies after they leave government.

The second half of Nestle's book is focused on dietary supplements and functional foods. These industries have scored many triumphs over the past decade. But at least one bold advertisement promoting ketchup (presumably along with the fried potatoes and hamburgers that it adorns) as a health food was overturned. A Heinz advertisement in the New York Times in 1999 (pictured in the book) was not allowed to continue to promote ketchup as a way to reduce prostate and cervical cancer.

The food industry influences not only what we eat, but our health. America is seriously out of whack when it comes to balancing corporate versus public interests.