What is up with potatoes? Within somewhat recent history, humans ate diets composed almost entirely of potatoes...it did not kill people in large numbers.
Obesity in the case of countries like the US is largely due to an excess of calories...maybe other stuff is bad for you but the evidence for that is kind of hard to demonstrate when there is so much obesity. I feel like this is kind of why there are problems with obesity. People lose their mind over stuff like bread and soda, and not overall calories.
In the US, many popular ingredients or basic food like canned tomatoes etc have lots of sugar added. Eliminate the additives and you'll quickly shed the excess weight. For example it's fairly hard in PL to find canned tomatoes with added sugar or passata. If one really needs to sweeten them, he can can add sugar by himself.
I am in the UK and Heinz puts a ton of sugar in the national staple: baked beans. I incline against blaming companies but additives is definitely an exception because those ingredients often aren't evident to consumers. We know soda has a ton of sugar but baked beans...most consumers don't know.
But it is also true that if you tried to sell those products in PL, consumers wouldn't have it. Eastern Europeans tend to be very knowledgeable about the origins of food in a way that UK or US consumers aren't. The difference between bread in PL and the West being the example I hear most about.
Obesity in the case of countries like the US is largely due to an excess of calories...maybe other stuff is bad for you but the evidence for that is kind of hard to demonstrate when there is so much obesity. I feel like this is kind of why there are problems with obesity. People lose their mind over stuff like bread and soda, and not overall calories.