Unpopular opinion: It's both a personal and societal failing, but personal choice is dominant. You can choose to eat rice and beans and drink water. You don't have to eat hamburgers and fries and drink sugar.
Rice has a fairly high glycemic index. Nothing wrong with eating some rice in moderation, but getting the majority of your calories from rice isn't healthy.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/a-good-guide-to-go...
McDonalds and their ilk, have created taste formulas that are nearly irresistable. I've seen people from foreign countries come to america who've never tasted anything other than their local cuisines who can't imagine eating anything else. but the second they sink their teeth into a McDon hamburger, they are hooked.
MSG has been shown as a super reliable way to make mice obese: there's even a scientific procedure named after it: "MSG induced Obestity". It's a standard procedure used as a precurser to obesity experiments on rats. If it's that reliable on rats, just imagine what it would do to humans.
https://www.mcdonalds.com/ae/en-ae/your-right-to-know.3807.d...
I don't think fast food restaurant necessarily create delicious superpalatable food.
Of course there are exceptions, but we're a long long way from only having the exceptions left.
People also don't know tricks like meal preps, sous vide, and slow cooking.
In reality, from a very young age people are bombarded with advertisements and other marketing materials that promote foods packed with sugar, carbs, and salt.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch is "part of this complete breakfast." In reality, it should never be a part of any breakfast.
Unhealthy foods are sold as healthy, e.g., the Nutella scandal: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/04/26/151454929/nu...
Another example: sugary, calorie-laden "vitamin" drinks and other "healthy" trends like flavored/sugared Kombucha, juices, etc.
I remember seeing advertisements from Coca-Cola "debunking" the idea that soda doesn't have hydration benefits.
Then you start realizing that doctors and other experts are receiving free materials from food and drug manufacturers. The food pyramid is influenced by food industry lobbyists.
So you're talking about it as if it's all "choice" but that becomes a very complex subject once you start following the money. The nutrition scientist at your local university or the dietician on main street doesn't have a marketing budget, but PepsiCo sure does.
However, despite that, I have a hard time believing that most people think eating at McDonalds is healthy, or that drinking Coca-Cola is healthy, or eating a bag of chips is healthy. They know it's not. Don't they? Am I wrong about that?
But there are a lot of products out there with more grey area than the typical McDonald's menu item.
For example, the Dunkin' "Power Breakfast Sandwich." The marketing sounds healthy without saying the words "healthy:" https://www.dunkindonuts.com/en/menu/sandwiches-and-more/pow...
Notice how this item has almost half your daily value of saturated fat! High cholesterol, high sodium!
A lot of people would see this menu and think "this is a good alternative to McDonald's."
Same deal with Subway. Jared was selling us on weight loss via eating sandwiches, but he himself didn't eat the Sweet Onion Chicken Teryaki – a.k.a. Chicken on Bread with Sugar Sauce. Subway was promoting footlongs (five...five dollar...five dollar footlongs!) specifically, a portion size that is objectively too large for a single meal unless you're skipping a meal or eating with basically no condiments. Everything about Subway is healthy-ish until you get to the end of the line and you have a spread of caloric sauces to choose from (all free) along with a translucent case of cookies, addictive chips, and unlimited-refill soda.
Another example: products labeled "no added sugar" that are largely sugar, such as orange juice. Sure, it's slightly better than added refined sugar, but it's still sugar and it's still calories.
I once dated someone who thought their daily Dunkin' Donuts coffee was a low-calorie menu item. Nope! It's 300+ calories, because it was a latte in a large portion size with sweetener. But it looks really similar to low-calorie items.
Portions are a huge issue, too. A lot of those fast food chains make larger drink and side sizes in the USA compared to the exact same menu items overseas. Why this is, I'm not actually 100% sure – maybe a more competitive fast food market in America where these companies are trying to beat competing restaurants in value?
All of this is to say:
1. We can't assume the average person's nutritional knowledge is very good. It's barely taught in school and the schools themselves are doing basically nothing to promote healthy eating. My public school provided meals like pizza, smiley-face french fries, Little Debbie desserts, and an entire cookie and slushie stand. They actually helped get me addicted to bad food!
2. We can't assume that the general population has any idea what rational portion sizes look like. This has been distorted beyond belief.
3. We can't even assume that the general population knows what a healthy-weight person looks like anymore! I had family members concerned about one family member who lost weight down to a healthy weight. They thought that this person was starving or something like that, even though they were basically the only person in the family who had reached ideal weight.
I know I ranted for a long bit here but I think the USA in particular is long-overdue for some really major reforms surrounding the food industry. There need to be serious restrictions on advertising, portions, and macronutrient transparency. Bad food should be treated a lot more like cigarettes. For example, if I could make all the decisions I'd make it illegal to mass-advertise any food item that exceeded certain daily value macro-nutrients like saturated fat, sugar, calories, etc. Sure, you can sell them, but you can't put them on TV.
That's not our ancestors eat, and that's not how I eat either. Though I did quit drinking half and half after realizing that it's supposed to be a food item rather than something to drink.
A lot of “default” portion sizes are too large.
A lot of companies heavily imply unhealthy products are healthy or beneficial.
A lot of high-calorie items are marketed as something that is okay to eat regularly and not just as an occasional treat.
That’s why in my mind advertising and packaging regulations are being underutilized.
Think of how cigarettes warn you about their unhealthy properties, and aren’t allowed to be advertised on TV. A lot of food products should really have similar restrictions.
E.g.:
“Caution: a full portion of this product provides an elevated level of sodium, increasing risk of heart attack and stroke.”
“This menu item exceeds recommended calorie levels for a single meal, and may cause weight gain and obesity with regular consumption.”
“This item is a high sugar item, increasing the risk of diabetes. Complications of diabetes can include nerve damage and glaucoma.”