High fructose corn syrup is very likely one of the reasons American's health is significantly worse than other nations. However the entire globe is suffering from the obesity epidemic, not just the USA.

There are regions of the world that are doing better than others, and a wide spectrum of reasons for that, but it is only comparative/relative improvement. Obesity is getting worse everywhere, across the board, as people are uplifted into middle class incomes and able to purchase and eat whatever they want & as much as they want.

> There are regions of the world that are doing better than others

It maps about 1:1 with the amount of sugary, fatty, addictive shit they're consuming. Across the globe. So do the trends. Prime example being the rising obesity rates in countries like Japan and Korea, rising at the exact same pace as the supply and consumption of above crap in those countries. They still have lower obesity rates than much of the West, at roughly the same relative difference of the amount of such crap consumed.

Obesity is rising everywhere except places experiencing war-torn famine. Even Bhutan has increasing waistlines. It's only a matter of how bad it is getting, how fast.