Personally, I never understood the "expensive to eat healthy" thing either. Eating out costs so damn much. I just go through the produce section and grab anything on sale and make meals around whatever veggies I can get a good price on.  That comparison is generally made on super-cheap fast food with something of comparable content.  Sure red beans and rice are really cheap, but adding meat to it makes the cost go up a lot.  Assuming you consider real meat to be comparable to what's in a fast food burger.  Add to the fact that most of these people are too lazy or simply don't know how to cook (and there are a few that are legitimately too busy working two jobs and taking care of kids to spend the time it takes to make many meals) and you see what happens.