The prices I quoted were actual prices I pay for food at Kroger (not even the cheapest supermarket) in North Carolina.<p>The food you proposed as an alternative would result in pretty bad malnutrition, so it isn&#x27;t really an alternative.  You might as well just compare a gallon jug of generic vegetable oil, the results in terms of health will be almost identical:<p>1 gallon vegetable oil, ~$5, containing ~30,000 calories, comes out to 6,000 calories per dollar.<p>Finally, note I didn&#x27;t say healthy food was cheaper than unhealthy food, only that healthy food is completely affordable.  Obesity is extremely common among poor people (_far_ more so, in fact, than among the affluent), they clearly can afford a slight increase in marginal cost per calorie.