 Most Americans don't even meet the watered-down federal dietary recommendations. But is it because healthy foods are more expensive? Are healthy foods really more expensive? It depends on how you measure the price. For over a century, the value of food has been measured in cost per calorie. If you were a bricklayer in Massachusetts in 1894, you may have needed more than 8,000 calories a day. So the emphasis was on cheap calories. So while beans and sugar both cost the same back then, about 5 cents a pound, sugar beat out beans for fuel value, more calories per unit cost. Of course, food offers much more than just calories, but they can be excused for their ignorance since vitamins and minerals hadn't even been discovered yet. But even to this day, when the cost of foods are related to their nutritional value, the value they're talking about is cheap calories. And when you rank foods like that, then indeed, junk food and meat is cheaper per calorie than fruits and vegetables. But that doesn't take serving size into account. If you measure foods in cost per serving, or cost per pound, then fruits and vegetables are actually cheaper. For all metrics except the price of food calories, the USDA research found that healthy foods cost less than less healthy foods. Here's 100 calories of cheese, 100 calories of candy, 100 calories of chicken, chips, bread, oil, fruits, vegetables. Which 100 calories is going to fill you up more? Most importantly, though, which is going to have the most nutrition. Here's the average nutrient density. Fruits, vegetables, refined grains, meats, milk, and empty calorie foods. So while junk food may be 4 times cheaper than vegetables, you get 20 times less nutrition. For meat, we'd be spending 3 times more to get 16 times less. More money for less nutrition. Conclusion. Educational messages focusing on a complete diet should consider the role of food costs and provide specific recommendations for increasing nutrient-dense foods by replacing some of the meat with lower-cost nutrient-dense foods. Beans and raw vegetables are less expensive, nutrient-dense, and maybe more satiating. So, for example, incorporating more beans, legumes, less meat, may be a cost-effective way to improve diet quality. Not only for low-income populations, I might add, but for everybody.