Quality food is more expensive than junk food, but it's still not very expensive. People just don't eat strategically. A gallon of whole milk is 2400 calories well balanced between carbs, fats, and proteins. It costs < $3 and can be purchased at any convenience store, gas station, or grocery store. If you're lactose intolerant, you can achieve the same number of well balanced calories with cheese, nuts and yogurt for only an additional $1 or so.

Cheap quality food (quality food in general, for that matter) requires preparation, and food prep requires time and energy, and to a lesser extent cooking utensils, spices, etc. that people who don't already cook probably don't have on hand. I often struggle to make myself cook a healthy meal after coming home from a laid back developer job. I can't imagine what it's like after a day at a mind numbing minimum wage job (or multiple such jobs)...

FWIW, some ideas on how to reduce time spent on cooking: 1. Pressure cooking - saves not just time, but also energy. 2. Cooking in bulk, e.g. over the weekend, freeze or refrigerate the contents, and heating in a microwave over the weekdays.

Personally, I think the biggest tragedy for low income people is that many small food stores that accept food stamps do not stock healthy foods well, instead favoring higher margin junk, processed food: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/21/opinion/see-no-junk-buy-no....

There is also the problem that a lot of healthy food is ridiculously overpriced, catering to the upper middle class population who wants to "eat healthy" and believes some nice "feel good" marketing material instead of careful thought. There still exists very good food that is very cheap, such as the beans mentioned in this discussion. Lentils operate in a similar fashion. It takes effort to identify such things though.

> There is also the problem that a lot of healthy food is ridiculously overpriced, catering to the upper middle class population who wants to "eat healthy" and believes some nice "feel good" marketing material instead of careful thought.

This has more to do with wealthier individuals who live in a bubble where they've convinced themselves that that "healthy" requires buzzwords like organic, non-GMO, free range, etc. If your normal diet consists of frozen chicken tenders and french fries, then switching to cooking your own lean chicken breast and fresh potatoes is a healthy upgrade to your diet, regardless of what buzzwords may or may not be on the packaging.

I agree in general, but there some foods which are exceptions. Identifying these exceptions - I mentioned a few of the important ones - is the key to eating a healthy and inexpensive diet that is also easy to prepare.

I mean, how many people regularly calculate the cost per calorie of the foods they buy? And if you don't do that then you're letting food costs happen to you, rather than effectively controlling your food costs. Hence my comment about most people not eating strategically.

To say nothing of beans, which are incredibly healthy and absurdly cheap.

If you have time to prepare food, then eating well for very little money is easy. It's harder to find foods which are healthy, cheap, and as easy to prepare as fast food or junk food.

That's why I like milk so much and wish more people consumed it as a staple in their diet: it's cheap and available everywhere. And, if you buy a half gallon (or however much you drink in a day), you don't even need to refrigerate it. Just lug it along with you throughout the day and it'll get better tasting as it gets warmer (room temperature milk is the best, IMO).

It's also why I like cheese, yogurt, and nuts. None of them require any preparation whatsoever.

"It's also why I like cheese, yogurt, and nuts. None of them require any preparation whatsoever."

Don't tell Solyent. That's their marketing plan beaten and it probably tastes better.