Epicurus was a modest eater and drinker, by all accounts, not at all the glutton he was painted by early christians with dubious agendas. Like his contempories he ate a Mediterranean diet. According to the European Heart Journal, commenting on a study of 15,000 people worldwide, this diet is really good for you. When people with heart disease eat a diet high in fruit, vegetables and fish, the journal reports, they are less likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Eating more of these foods influences their health more than reducing unhealthy items such as sugary drinks (European Heart Journal, doi.org/bfns reported in New Scientist).
In America sugar and salt seem to be added to everything. In our local “health food” store, where you pay a significant extra amount for the privilege of spending money, they add sugar to soup, to muesli, and, if you examine labels, it seems to most things. A bit of sugar is harmless in small quantities, but it is a poison if you are constantly with a Coke can in hand. Efforts to tax sugary drink to improve public health are met with furious protest. It is, of course, the right of everyone to eat what that want and like, and to consume far too many carbohydrates (portions in restaurants are expected to be huge) as long as they understand what it does to their long-term health. And if the nation is prepared to pay the cost.
I try to eat as healthily as I can, simply because it tastes nicer. I like deserts, but not additional sugar in non-desert food such as soup or crisps. Like you I love the Mediterranean diet; I regularly eat pasta and I always have a healthy supply of extra virgin olive oil to hand. Having said that, the high fat diet of Europe does have its uses, especially for workers who work long hours in physically intensive jobs, such as construction workers, plumbers and electricians. The trouble is, as more of us do office jobs nowadays, the need for that diet has lessened, but our consumption habits have stayed the same, resulting in an increasing obesity rate.
America is a particularly bad case. Much of it is to do with poverty- the poorer the state or county, the higher the prevalence of health problems. But successive government have encouraged low-density suburban development, fostering unwalkable communities with high levels of car dependency and poor public transport. Instead, there should be a shift towards the low-rise, high density development you see in Paris and much of West London (in particular, Kensington and Chelsea show how high-density living can actually be very pleasant and desirable.)