[media-credit name=’BEN CLASSON/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]A nationally renowned food expert criticized the U.S. food culture Monday night during the most recent installment of the University of Wisconsin's Distinguished Lecture Series.

Marion Nestle, a professor at the New York University and author of "Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health," spoke to hundreds of students about the current cultural environment that encourages people to eat unhealthy foods.

During her speech, Nestle addressed various factors including marketing, investment and store layout that have caused a 17 percent rise in obesity cases in the general U.S. population over the last 20 years.

"People are very confused about what to eat," Nestle said. "I'm in a position where I can help people understand food issues better so that they can make healthier food choices."

Nestle's presentation titled, "What to Eat: Personal vs. Social Responsibility," started with the politics of the food industry.

Despite already dealing with heavy competition, Nestle said investors expect food companies to post growth plans every 90 days.

"This forces companies to try and find ways to make people eat more so that [the companies] can make a profit and grow." Nestle said.

As a result of a competitive food market, Nestle presented figures showing the inverse relationship between an increase in caloric content in the food and a decrease of the price of food.

Nestle noted that Americans spend the least amount of their earnings on food compared to the rest of the world.

"I can summarize very quickly: My rule is eat less, move more, eat fruits and vegetables, don't eat too much junk food," Nestle said. "Don't buy anything that has more than five ingredients in it, don't buy anything if you can't pronounce one of the ingredients, and don't buy anything that has an artificial anything in it."

When asked about education and a solution for student food problems, Nestle said students should help find a solution.

"Students do have to propose the solution," Nestle said. "The other part is educating students about food issues and why they are important."

According to Nestle, students usually gain weight their first year since it is often the first time they are exposed to so much food variety within a close proximity of their residence.

"It has to be something that is managed," Nestle said. "The more you know about how the food system works, the more you can make choices that are good for your health."

Reactions to the lecture were mixed, as some students thought Nestle avoided some bigger issues, while others were happy that Nestle tackled issues that closely affected them.

"She didn't challenge current ideals or values," UW senior James Kimble said. "She skimmed over pretty quickly issues dealing with bioengineered foods and mostly only talked about organic ones."

However, UW sophomore Zachary Glembin said he enjoyed the portion of Nestle's presentation on public school lunch programs.

"I liked when she talked about school systems and how lunch is pretty much terrible, and how New York got a chef to go from school to school to make changes," Glembin said. "I know that was a big issue at my high school. Either you bought the crappy lunch or you brought food from home."