I actually agree that there are a lot of understandable reasons that people (perhaps especially Americans) eat crappy food rather than cooking something more nutritious--time, knowledge, living environment. I'm just arguing that, while the relative cost plays some role, it's not the overriding factor that it's sometimes made out to be.

See jandrese's response to your comment. It's not a trivial $6/day is not a trivial cost for even lower middle class people.

On the contrary: http://www.ibtimes.com/us-spends-less-food-any-other-country...

Don't forget, you also need to have some cooking skills, access to recipes, and time. Lots of time (relative to fast food.)

In Latin America 'fast food' like hotdogs and hamburgers is usually the slowest to get to the plate.

I can sit in a restaurant chair and be taking my soup within 60 seconds of sitting, in lots of places.

And it is usually (but not always) healthier than 'fast food'.

At a sit-down restaurant, yeah, a burger will often take longer than most other items. That's because it's being prepared fresh. A real "fast food" place doesn't prepare its food fresh like that. An actual fast food burger can be prepared and put into your hands in less than a minute if people aren't busy (and it's not held up by the rest of your order).

if you want cooking hardware cheap its fairly easy in the u.s. Thrift stores' more reliable items to find are always cooking hardware, all manner of containers, utensils. things like a large crockpot can be had for under $30 new. Also people state that fresh veggies are expensive, but frozen vegetables can be found for cheap. The practice now has been flash freezing for a lot of these I think so nutrients are preserved.