Healthy Food Affordability

No it's not. Poor people live in food deserts and buy 5000 calorie dinners for $2 at Dollar General. It's hardly discretionary to try to feed yourself real food. Now let's tie in the cost of healthcare associated with eating cheap junk food and you've got a problem. This is like an argument with someone who denies global warming.

Junk food very often is more calories per $. Doesn't matter if they want to eat better, they can't afford to.

Healthy food is more expensive both in time required for prep and materials. That is why affluent people seemingly buy healthier food. When you grow up poor, or live poor you don't have as much time or mental energy to properly diet.

The problem is that its hard to find more calories/$ without investment in ingredients and a kitchen; it's hard to fault the poorest people for buying what seems economically rational in the short term.

Unfortunately, diet is often not a simple choice. The price of calories has gone down significantly for mass-produced, less-healthy food, whereas healthy food (like fresh fruit and vegetables) are nowhere near as cheap.Look at fast food restaurant menus and the processed/frozen food section of your supermarket and it is 50% cheaper to feed a family of four that way (and perceived to be faster) than it is to use fresh, healthy ingredients.Then factor in less-developed countries, where

That's actually very witty. I do realise though that eating good quality food is not a choice that everyone is free make in the US. Not when a decent carrot costs the same as a cheeseburger down the road [1][1] https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180222-how-can-a-fast...

Because some people can only afford cheap products. It's much better to eat "unhealthy" food than to not eat at all.

Yeh, meat and vegetables can be expensive. But, for example, a bag of lentils, a bag of brown rice, some tinned tomatoes and spices. That stuff is so cheap, none of it requires refrigeration and it's easy to cook large amounts using a single pot on a plug-in stovetop. Sure, there's a process around it, but almost by definition, if you're poor, then you've got a low hourly rate. Even these days, as a "proper grown up", if someone suggests getting food out, my instinctive reaction is "No, I can't

This is just code for poor people and if it is true it is because they can't afford (and/or don't have access to) fresh fruits, vegetables and quality meats.

Never in human history was food this dirt cheap, at least in Western countries. We spend maybe 5-15% of our salaries on food - on average. So, there is leeway. Buy an iphone kess, spend less on computer games and other useless crap, grow a bit yourselves, and everyone can eat as healthy as tey want. It is a shame that any peasant in Western Siberia eats more healthy food than the average American.