How is malnutrition ever good?

"Mal", bad, in the latin

Losing weight is probably worth the tradeoff for most Americans.

Sure, losing weight is of benefit. But malnutrition is defined as a "serious deficiency" in the intake of energy and nutrients. Healthy weight loss is not malnutrition, and you can quite definitely be missing essential vitamins and be malnourished without losing weight.

Heck, some of the worst western diets are both poor in vitamins/minerals and also still rich in calories.

Not just americans. With very few exclusions, we are all overweight, even people who do look great. The food we consuming is mostly crap.

So it's a benefit almost for everyone.