there's also evidence that sugar consumption in the usa a century ago was already high, and the hadza famously eat mostly honey in july and august, so i think that while sugar is probably a contributor, it's probably not sufficient by itself

it would be pretty surprising to find that, say, propionate intake suppressing intestinal yeast growth was a major cause of the obesity pandemic. but it certainly seems to be something about industrial food manufacturing that goes beyond just caloric density and macronutrient balance, and additives seem like a promising place to look

i mean the village baker a century ago didn't put calcium propionate in his bread so it wouldn't get moldy, he just threw the moldy bread out