Honestly, there are many reasons… Poverty is a huge factor. Highly processed foods are usually the cheapest and most convenient option. And sometimes a soda can be cheaper to purchase than water. Also, school budgets are usually funded by property taxes, so areas in poverty have significantly degraded educational programs and facilities.
The poor education levels mean that people rarely learn about the impacts of high sugar diets on the body. People will feed their child a high sugar diet starting as early as a 2 years old. I’ve seen a document where a woman was feeding their toddler Mt dew out of a baby bottle…
Advertising techniques play a big role here too. Foods labeled as nutritious are actually just pumped full of sugar. Foods like yogurt, “bread”, granola bars, cereals, or anything with a sauce in it.
On top of all that, Americans have an extremely sedentary lifestyle. From sitting in cubicles to sitting in cars, then finally to the couch. The most walking people do is from the parking lot to the store/building they are going to.
Amazing dad joke. I’m totally using that someday lol