+1 to this - what Europeans consider "the basics" for most Americans is filed under "luxury" or "bougie."

I wonder why, then, Europeans move to the US in such large numbers for academic and tech jobs.

They don't move because the food's better. How is your comment relevant to the discussion?

The food is better though, as long as you are willing to try food you are not familiar with.

It’s cool to hate on America. Everything is always better in Europe.

was in greece for three months. the quality of the BASIC fruits and vegetables at the regular local market down the street from where I was staying was on par with wholefoods. It was surreal how cheap it was to eat HEALTHY.

Have you been to Mexican grocery stores in the US?

Almost any ethnic grocery store will do since they cater to immigrant communities that are likely to be lower income. Here in SoCal some are cheaper than others but they're all way cheaper than Ralphs/Vons/Trader Joes/Costco/etc (I don't shop at WalMart so I'm not sure how they compare)

There are also native stores that are increasingly entering into low cost produce like Grocery Outlet and then there are the usual like Food4Less but they tend to eventually move upmarket.

That's overkill. There are very marginal health benefits to eating organic watercress vs. eating whatever dark leafy green is currently on sale at the discount supermarket.

The problem isn't that people go to supermarkets and they can't find any healthful ingredients to cook with. The problem is that they go to supermarkets and pass those over in favor of convenience foods that have been optimized for "craveability" [1].

GLP-1 drugs can alter this behavior by reducing food cravings. Someone who's no longer craving the most craveable food can make more objective by-the-numbers buying decisions the next time they go grocery shopping.

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/16/459981099/ho...

Imagine thinking Whole Foods is high quality.

The only way you're going to get high quality food in the US is if you live where the Amish are.