That's a good question. Let's turn this into a saying like the ball is the program. "Your diet is your life." By "diet," I don't mean dieting to lose weight, I mean the things people consume on a daily basis.
Time? Less time and forethought into what you consume will likely mean less time alive, unless you happen to be lucky. Sure, there are people who can consume a lot of "unhealthy" cars and not suffer any ill effects, but many people will gain a lot of weight to the point of become morbidly obese and get diabetes, which will trigger a lot of other health problems. As an aside, I met a client who was 90 years old, fit as a fiddle, crushed my hand when we shook hands, and he was downing 2 bagels slathered with cream cheese for his breakfast. Some people are lucky that way.
Back to our meal planning and prep time. Once we figured it out, it does not seem to be any more time consuming to prepare meals that we know are healthy versus preparing boxed spaghetti and sauce for meal. Most of our food is purchased at the supermarket, so we do not go to butchers, bakers and candle stick makers. Vegetables are not terribly expensive, and I gave the example of growing your own for those who may be really poor and cost constrained.
Really poor people have food stamps. I know some people on food stamps. They eat really well. Comically, I know a person who was offering to buy lobster and seafood for friends at the holidays because they had so many foodstamps that they could buy more food than they needed. And this person is very healthy.
The strange thing is that you see a LOT of very wealthy people making millions of dollars per year who are very obese. A lot of them are football coaches, which is strange, because they are surrounded by nutrition and medical experts. They could also afford to hire registered dieticians and/or order out healthy food from a place like Get Clean Bro. It's something to think about. Probably these people are so stressed out by their jobs and job security, they don't think about how to manage their own health. Food becomes comfort to them, and the go down a path of consuming a lot of "bad" food. I'm guessing that is what led to Mike Leach's early death. And he was a very intelligent person. Graduated in the top 25% of his class from Pepperdine Law School.
Who wants to join me for lunch today? Water with squeezed lemon, brussel sprouts, olive oil and 10 almonds! The lunch of champions. 😂