There's a reason the Atkin diet works. Take off the bun and you've got a perfectly nonfattening 510-calorie meal. Take off the processed meat (sausage) and you've got a 310-calorie meal of egg, cheese, and bacon; fewer calories than in many prepackaged diet meals.
If we eliminated processed foods from our diet, we'd eat tons more than we do now.
You are absolutely right. And, I think most of it comes down to
high fructose corn syrup, to be exact. For a long time I wondered how I could eat like there's no tomorrow and gain hardly any fat-weight. I've realized it's primarily because I've hardly ever cared to eat processed foods (granted, I'm sure a got at least a bit of an assist from genetics). A few years ago when I identified and ditched my one regular source of corn syrup (Pepsi) I swiftly dropped the few extra pounds I didn't want without changing anything else. Then, not long ago I concluded that
aspartame was very likely a health threat, and I had to ditch colas altogether. =(
But, getting back to the real point, if our government weren't so thoroughly corrupt they would approve stevia and end the sugar cane subsidies and the obesity epidemic would be all but over IMHO.