The entire American food pyramid and food ecosystem was explicitly designed to create metabolic disorders and enslave the American people to the for-profit medical system. It’s why raw foods with zero processing (and so, zero additional costs) cost several multiples more than highly processed foods (which cost much more to produce).
Y’all all need to largely remove the bottom level of the food pyramid from your diet, and start viciously curating highly-processed foods out of your diet.
None of that would have happened with a well-educated populace that could employ bullshit detection and critical thinking.
Hell, I doubt even conservatism in any capacity could survive as a going concern in such a society.