the real "meanwhile in africa" is that they actually cook veggies and fruit in a way that's appealing, they don't just fucking steam some broccoli and expect kids to enjoy it.
A big part is that the processed foods of America make us have drug like cravings for things we consume too much of, salt, fat, sugar, etc. Get em hooked, it's good for profit.
And we're dependant on them much of the time because of our subsist to work lifestyle.
It's expensive for it to be easy to eat well in America. While the owners order postmate's cobb salads, have household staff, and eat out with abandon, in addition to being on their own time, eating healthy while poor involves dodging endless temptation to eat fastcrap instead while prepping and cooking and cleaning meal kits before and/or after work, lengthening the time off work devoted to work. Many tonedeaf say "it's important so do it or you're just irresponsible," but when time is a commodity of survival for the poor, taking care of your health is often the first priority to be sold off.
And let's be honest, with that highly prevalent, encouraged lifestyle in America, how hard are you going to want to maximize your longevity to keep doing it? We're livestock for wealthy sociopaths and our reward for the daily profit maze is ubiquitous delicious poison. What a great fucking place.
to me it's just raw veggies but without the satisfying textures, and a tendency to smell like farts if it's in the brassica family. Exceptions being potato and any type of bean/pea.
Now if you steam/boil veggies and then fry them, that's almost always a huge improvement over raw. I'm a slut for the maillard reaction.
Something like that, many foods are way too bitter for me and i have yet to find a cup of coffee that doesn't make me stare at people who drink it in abject horror because it tastes like poison.
i wouldn't know, i find broccoli in general to be firmly "meh", it's just one of the more common examples of a vegetable that people serve in the worst way imaginable and expect their kids to eat anyways.