My apologies for not being precise enough. "Everything falls down" fails as an explanation for Newton's purposes because "down" and "falls" as we use those term

My apologies for not being precise enough. "Everything falls down" fails as an explanation for Newton's purposes because "down" and "falls" as we use those terms on earth don't apply to stars. As a description of a phenomena, though, it points right at what Newton was interested in, as you say. Something similar would apply here to the statement, "People are getting fat because they are overeating." As an explanation, it falls short for someone who wants to know why they overeat, but their neighbor does not.