So, even after an epic lunchtime quest of hunting/gathering, you might end up out 20-30 bucks for a depressing pile of iceberg lettuce, croutons, and shredded cheese. (In America, this is often called a "Caesar salad." Yes, really.)
Even if you do happen to be in the rare neighborhood that has a good salad connection, you're still committing to spending your lunch break furiously chewing raw vegetables in whatever few minutes you have left after running to go get your meal. This is what I did every day for months when I worked in an office, but let's not pretend it's ideal.
The dream would be fresh, cooked vegetables, so that one could get the best bioavailability. [1] But that is largely a fever dream, even in major cities. For example, I can count on 1 hand the number of restaurants I know where I could order a simple plate of steamed/roasted broccoli for less than 20 dollars.
[1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878450X1...
Though I'm in the Northeast -- your access to wildly abundant Chinese takeout may vary.
Depressing indeed! Where I live, it's like €1.50 per ~500g chunk of raw broccoli (just the vegetable, harvested, possibly washed and wrapped in plastic, transported to supermarket). Other vegetables in similar range, and no problem finding stores with a decent selection of veggies & fruit.
Are US farmers somehow unable to grow broccoli <$1.50/lb? Or food stores incapable of selling raw veggies @ reasonable prices?
Looking at price indexes from the US Fed it might just be cheap for me here. The average seems close to $2/lb.
Healthy and "have as little calories as possible just above the eating disorder line" are two different things.
If you have some big blood glucose swings (which end up in cravings for example), I would recommend tackling that as underlying issue, great improvements of quality of your life lie there. You can train your body to almost any regime including healthier ones, the only requirement is a bit of discipline in the beginning.
And no, I can't train my body to almost any regime. My body needs nutrients and calories. When food does not have it, it is not healthy food.
My point was, people do not eat just salad as their only food, because despite having Fibre and vitamins, it does not contain what your body needs. And that "any calories baad" thinking is an eating disorder.
The bigger issue I see is folks having weak will - why take that salad when next to it is well cooked sausage or pizza slice. When talking about it, few admit they lost the battle of will with themselves, most come up with some made up version of reality where its actually almost ok.