Fast food chains, unnecessary ingredients that can harm like food coloring, artificial sweeteners, excessive amounts of sugar.
EU has strictly regulated the use of unnecessary ingredients. Using natural orange coloring from carrots is a perfect replacement.
I would probably add the compounding factor of the extreme sedentary lifestyle of many USians. Driving everywhere even if it is five minutes away, bee-lining the closest parking spaces, taking a lift to go up one floor.
Just walking to the train station or market and riding bicycles to commute short distances does a tremendous amount for your health. I was pretty surprised at just how short a distance people were driving last time I was in the US.
To be fair artificial sweeteners have been proven to not actually cause harm. If anything it's excess sugar and fat, which artificial ingredients are unrelated to because they contain no nutrition usable to humans. If they really did cause negative effects, it would be more akin to poisoning rather than high blood pressure and obesity.
I love artificial sweeteners. Something tastes sweet, but it doesn't add calories. Its so great to lose weight with them. Of course it is not good, if you have a allergy against a specific sweetener.
