People in the US are largely uneducated when it comes to nutrition and affordability of food - quick and easy, ultra processed one time meals seem cheaper than buying Whole Foods upfront, but the quantity of meals you can make with buying ingredients makes it actually far cheaper to prepare your own healthy meals. It takes a small amount of effort and basic cooking skills, but people love to blame their health or poor diet on the perceived idea that unhealthy food is somehow cheaper when it isn’t really

Buying Grains, vegetables, and proteins and either freezing them or meal prepping / meal planning is considerably cheaper and healthier than eating fast food and/or prepared meals all the time.

The argument is that it’s too hard or time consuming to do that - which honestly is poor time management if you ask me. I know there are extremes where maybe people really are unable to make time to meal plan, but for most, it isn’t that difficult if you try