“More expensive in the time it takes to prepare” is more expensive for large numbers of working class families, and it’s often a worse kind of expensive than a strictly monetary difference.

I regularly use potatoes to bulk up my lunch glass dish mix.

Skip the peeling, rinse, dice, throw in microwave for some minutes in glass lunch container, then throw in the rest into same glass container.

Can season and add oil if desired (just toss around in said glass container).

My biggest problem is going through 10lb bags without wasting, but they’re so much more expensive when you help yourself.

Hey bro, go pick on someone else's calories, getting calories from cake is the same as avocados. It's all cals in cals our right?

Cheap food is calorie-dense but nutrient-poor. In order to avoid deficiencies, you have to eat a lot of it.

I remember reading Orwell's "Road to Wigan Pier" (a bit dated) and one of his observations was that a lower class supermarket would have nothing but white bread. However a middle class supermarket would have brown bread and healthier foods as well. His conclusion was, very roughly, that eating healthy was a luxury of those who were well off. Whereas the poor were struggling so much day to day that they needed short-term gratification just to get through.

Cheap food causes obesity insofar that if you have money you can buy nutrient dense food that tastes good and spend zero time preparing it. With cheap food you're constantly expending willpower to eat food that tastes like crap, expending more time making it, or are sacrificing health value. Eating pots of unappetizing starches (which really aren't as healthy as you make them out to be relative to smart fast food picks) takes time and willpower. Those are actually limited resources. Attempting to do difficult unpleasant things one after another does actually wear you down and cause negative mental health effects which unravel your plans. A starch heavy diet means you're going to get rocked by insulin spikes regularly for your troubles. Whereas if you can afford to eat leafy greens and a big hunk of fish your mental stamina will increase.

In my mind the key to a healthy diet isn't buying potatoes and rice in bulk. It's $$$. FWIW my favorite poverty meal was chili... Good mix of time effiency/cost efficiency/taste.

People who are poor and find that they are pregnant (planned or unplanned) - have many things they worry about, I doubt that 'my kid could be fat' is on the list of things they worry about and weigh on the decision to seek abortion or adoption.

Maybe your comment is meant as sarcasm, or to make people think about what they are saying could be construed as what you are saying, but sadly there are many people who think poor people have the same knowledge and forethought as them, and therefore are making terrible decisions that cost them and their kids in ways that perhaps should lead to them not having their kids.

There are so many things that people need to worry about, and added things that poor people are likely to consider. I don't see how obesity is likely a top concern. Maybe there are some situations where one or both parents are obese and they project concerns, and given that so many people are, that may indeed be a factor, I just don't think it's a top worry among people in most cases.

Of course there are plenty of parents that likely think most of the kids drinks from big brands that have pictures of fruit on the label actually have fruit or juice in them - and it seems that many or most do not ( https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/bestselling-fruit-drinks-for... )

So poor and non-poor alike or more likely being fooled by our food companies, and making assumptions that (mis)place trust in our brands and stores and govt regulations.

At least that how it appears from my limited view of the world these days.

We've seen the very ugly direction(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics) that has gone before. Lets not go there.

Should people who know their children will suffer in numerous other ways be having children?

Should people be having children in a world that contains nuclear weapons? Or starvation? Or Nazis? What horror.