There’s a bit more nuance to it than home cooked meals being healthy and eating out being unhealthy.

There is a reason why restaurant chains are cheap. Their food comes from industrial factories.

McDonalds isn’t going to have professional cooks make bread, fries, sauce… in each restaurant. That would be too expensive. They bring the frozen food in trucks. The employees do the last part. That’s how all corporate chains operate. Anything that comes from a factory is ultra-processed.

Really rich people employ real cooks and butlers. Or they go to expensive restaurants.

I’d rather work an hour than spend an hour cooking, which also makes more financial sense.

This sounds penny-wise and pound foolish.

Food can be classified into different categories, from unprocessed food (UF) to ultraprocessed food (UPF).

Basically, this is unprocessed vs ultra-processed:

You are basically saying eating ultra-processed food is a good idea to save money.

It’s not:

https://keck.usc.edu/news/usc-study-links-ultra-processed-food-intake-to-prediabetes-in-young-adults/

https://now.tufts.edu/2022/08/31/new-study-links-ultra-processed-foods-and-colorectal-cancer-men

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/ultra-processed-foods-may-increase-risk-of-depression/

You don’t have to spend 1 hour cooking. You can cook pasta in 20 minutes and add some olive oil.

If you are lazy, you can just eat fruits, veggies and nuts.