Maybe this differs per area, but in most places i know, fruit is significantly cheaper than processed snacks. I can eat 4 apples for the price of one Mars bar.
This disagrees with my daily experience in Europe, so I conclude it's a US-specific thing.
It is. Having lived in both places, it's astounding how expensive good food is in the US and how cheap crap food can be. $1 for a single apple or for a McD burger? Tough choice.
Add to that the fact that most of the US poor are time poor as well. Working 3 jobs and/ot commuting 3hrs per day doesn't leave a lot of time to prepare meals.
Probably healthier to eat two double cheeseburgers than 5-6 bananas too. Bananas are really really really packed with sugar.
14 grams per 100 calories (banana) versus 7 grams per 440 calories (McDonalds double cheeseburger).
Now whether it's healthy to eat 800 calories for breakfast ... eh, probably not. But that's a different problem. Also depends on what you intend to do all day. Physical labor? Eat away. Sit at desk? Maybe try a quarter of a double cheeseburger instead :D
So I dunno. Bananas are not the best example, great after and pre workout, not thaaaat great as something you'd eat all the time.
Fruit is bulkier and spoils faster, this means it takes more storage space and more frequent shopping trips (and/or more refrigerated space.) These have costs.
Further—for basically the same reasons—the corner convenience store that will carry processed snacks often won't carry much, if any, fresh fruit, meaning it takes many who are poor longer shopping trips, as well.
It's not snacking that is causing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Snacking is good if you eat healthy snacks.
I'm not sure about meat but fruit is definitely affordable. Especially bananas and apples. Bananas are far cheaper than any other food. Yet, people snack on chips/crisps and other refined carbs.
I love this list, but I doubt it's accurate to more than an factor of 2. http://efficiencyiseverything.com/calorie-per-dollar-list/
Bananas are not a cost effective source of calories, have very little protein, and boast a fairly high glycemic index.
basically, bananas are trash at being fruit.
And protein deficiency? A 70kg male needs something like 55g of protein (WHO figures) unless they exercise. You are not going to go below that unless you fill a substantial chunk of your calorie intake by eating pure fat.
I eat a plant based diet and weigh about 67kg. On 2500kcal I get about 95-110g of protein, and that is without trying. Had I been a meat/milk eater, this number would have been higher.
Protein intake is generally a problems if you are either starving or very serious about building LOTS ofta muscle.
Can you expand on this?
The quantity of it per unit volume or mass of the apricot, which affects satiety and the total quantity you are likely to eat of it, as well as other ingredients consumed alongside the sugars. For instance, a 44g snickers bar has 20g of sugars and 0.8g fiber; 165g of sliced apricot has only 15g of sugars and 3.3g of fiber; so less than a quarter of the sugar density by mass, with in the ballpark of the same fiber density, or about a four times higher fiber-to-sugar ratio for the apricot.
It lifts the individual food-items towards a more socioeconomic, structuralistic philosophy of society. Eating the Snickers bar is communicating "I do not care about my food-choices". It is about carelessness and sloth, a stigmatic act.
And even though there is a kernel of truth in your argument, it introduces more dogma into the whole food situation.
Quick Google search: apricots and Snickers both have 2% fiber content.
What ultimately matters is the glycemic index. An apricot has a GI of 34, whereas a Snickers bar is ~70.
(Just for the record, I never eat snacks like Snickers, haven't been to a McDonalds for over a decade, grow my own food, regularly eat nuts and work out thrice a week. I focus on balance in my food, with the right intake at the right moment. So, eating sugar isn't that bad, but your body needs to be able to use that energy directly.)
I could easily mow down a whole pack of oreos and a quart of milk (500 more calories). I have done so many times. I might do it tonight. I dunno about 150-180 apricots. That is only 200% of daily recommended fiber intake tho.
It's very difficult for a person eating normally to not get enough of their daily vitamin intake, so please specify the type.
Sources ? I got hundreds of studies proving the exact opposite if you want