I dropped multiple dress sizes by improving my nutrition. I also got my younger son to drop weight without dieting by buying him dark chocolate as a means to discourage him from eating chocolate pop tarts. I learned he was eating chocolate pop tarts all day, concluded he was specifically craving cocoa and found him a better source of cocoa so he could get enough cocoa with fewer calories.

I suspect obesity is frequently due to getting too little nutrition while getting enough/too much in the way of calories. You keep eating precisely because you are malnourished and it fosters cravings.

If all you get to eat is cheap processed junk food you can be both obese and malnourished

I'd argue yes, malnourishment is a problem in the US primarily due to sugar subsidies. Remember that malnourishment != starvation.

It can be eating heavily processed foods with extra sugar (in 1 of the 56 different approved names for sugar by the FDA). Or it can be from soda in myriad forms. Or packed and hidden in the aisles of a grocery store of, again, high prpocessed and low nutrient foods.

Or they're in a food desert in the extreme rural areas or the big cities.

And I'd definitely classify obesity as a type of malnourishment. Mal- just means bad.

About 1/10 households were food insecure in the US last year according to the government itself: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/fo...

Lots of kids from poor families start the school day hungry

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/03/give-k...