> Americans could probably start with putting less sugar into bloody everything and reducing portion sizes
It's not just America.
"Obesity in India has reached epidemic proportions in the 21st century, with morbid obesity affecting 5% of the country's population" [1]. (It's about 7% in America [2].) Meanwhile in China, "the incidence of overweight and obesity among school-age children...was 15.5% in 2010, rising to 24.2% in 2019 and soaring to 29.4% in 2022" [2]. Same story in Vietnam: "The prevalence of overweight among children aged under 5 years increased from 5.6% in 2010 to 7.4% in 2019. For overweight and obesity among children aged 5 to 19 years, prevalence rose from 8.5% and 2.5% in 2010 to 19% and 8.1% in 2020, respectively" [3].
Which says that — if you choose to interpret things charitably and leave cost-cutting and profiteering out of it — the culinary tradition lags behind lifestyle changes severely. Urban populations largely don't have physically demanding, very manual jobs from dawn till dusk anymore, yet traditional portion sizes and composition of the dishes stay the same as they would be for heavy duty workers (I'm not speaking of abused workers or slaves here, mind you).
While you may interject that privileged classes used to have larger portions and better quality food without having to work so much at all times, it somehow coincides with fatty bellies being a status symbol in many locales. Being obese used to be a sort of privileged class mark.
It's not just America.
"Obesity in India has reached epidemic proportions in the 21st century, with morbid obesity affecting 5% of the country's population" [1]. (It's about 7% in America [2].) Meanwhile in China, "the incidence of overweight and obesity among school-age children...was 15.5% in 2010, rising to 24.2% in 2019 and soaring to 29.4% in 2022" [2]. Same story in Vietnam: "The prevalence of overweight among children aged under 5 years increased from 5.6% in 2010 to 7.4% in 2019. For overweight and obesity among children aged 5 to 19 years, prevalence rose from 8.5% and 2.5% in 2010 to 19% and 8.1% in 2020, respectively" [3].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_India
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10357130/
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9947684/