If you are overweight or obese, then you may definitely think that buying a few cheap, unprocessed, bulk food will be better for your financial health. First of all, many packaged processed foods I found actually cost more than the whole, unprocessed, bulk foods, because one package can only be enough for one person during one mealtime. Second of all, eating too many processed foods is not good for your health in the long run, anyway.
You may be spending $4 a day just to buy one 5-pound bag of potatoes, one bunch of fresh greens, and one 2-pound package of 6 seasoned chicken leg quarters at my local Kroger grocery store. You have your protein, fat, and carbohydrates from the potatoes and chicken. You also have your vitamins, minerals, water, and fiber from the greens. However, when you prepare the meal for the week, you face a problem. How much can you eat per day to maintain your weight?
If you buy your groceries in the late afternoon after work, and you plan to have one baked potato, one-quarter of the bunch of kale (about 4 oz), and one piece of the chicken leg quarter (about 5 oz) during each mealtime, then you can probably eat the same meal for 4 mealtimes. One baked large potato may yield as much as 300 calories. One baked chicken leg quarter may yield as much as 300 calories.
The four ounces of kale may yield about 60 calories. If you are a woman of reproductive age, then you may be eating just enough to maintain your weight. But if you are a man of reproductive age, then you may be eating not enough calories to maintain your weight. A man may have to eat an extra baked potato in order to maintain his weight. Of course, this affects how much food you will have left in the pantry/refrigerator at the end of the following day.
If you are not thinking about weight loss while eating cheaply and locally, then it is very easy to consume less calories than you think you do. The amounts of food I mentioned above are not small things. A chicken leg quarter is a chicken thigh AND a chicken drumstick. A large potato may be just about the size of your hand from the tip to the bottom of the palm, depending how big your hand is. And four ounces of kale may give you one-quarter of a bunch.
If you are trying to lose weight, then you won't be so concerned about the calorie deficit. However, if you are just trying to maintain a normal weight, then you must consume more of what you buy, which means you have to pay more for goods. However, changing your cooking method may help. Instead of baking, you may deep-fry the frenched potatoes to make French fries. This simple change in cooking method may help with consuming less goods and still receiving the same amount of calories.
I believe that it is good to be resourceful with money and food. If you are wealthy, then you can buy anything you want at any time. You may even hire a private cook, if you want! But if you are relatively poor, then buying cheap, local, unprocessed, bulk food and making sure that the food can make multiple meals can be very tricky. You may have to resort to using a lot of deep-frying in order to increase the amount of calories with a little bit of food.
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Obese people can lose weight more easily because they have more energy from all the calories they consumed.
That's true. I find it easy to lose weight, but gaining it back is a torture.