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Its difficult to eat healthily on a tight budget but it can be possible (but there are variables which will effect it). Pretty sure most foods are much more expensive here than in the US (chicken for example is 12+ euros a kilo) but I live below the poverty line and can afford to cook healthy meals most of the time (could probably afford it all the time if I adjusted my budget a little but I like wine) but its when people have food allergies and need special food that it can get much more expensive and harder (for example coeliac disease or a dairy allergy) and its going to depend on the area where you live (whether produce is grown locally or has to be imported and what kind of animals are farmed for meat).
It also helps if you live somewhere where you can supplement your diet by foraging - for example I picked berries in the forests and friendly peoples' gardens this summer to freeze, with a little more effort I could have picked enough for the whole winter and would get a great healthy boost from them. Mushrooms and apples are also in the season for foraging. Get a lot of people fishing here too to freeze fish for use later in the year. But these are location dependent so its one of the variables that effect whether you can truely manage a healthy (as in properly healthy with fish and veggies and fruit) diet on a low income.
The take away is not the excuses that the stupid, fat, lazy poor people can take away from thread such as these that give them leave to eat crappy food all day long, in my opinion. The take away SHOULD be that in the US there is no sensible public food policy. Like it or not, we live largely in cities. Food is a giant production. And very little is done to ensure quality product. We have Monsanto able to do whatever it damned well pleases due to its filthy rich lobby. We subsidize corn like crazy. Corn being just another crap carb. Our apples are coated in pesticides then wax to make them pretty for sale. So eating the skin, where the nutrients live, is scary. Our other vegetables are bred for looks, color and other properties which will make them more attractive at the store. And shipped in from Chile and the like.
We are lucky. We have local growers and a very large eat local movement. And those of us who can regularly donate fresh produce to our food shelves and the like here. The growers themselves are very clever about how to get their product into needy bellies as well. But I get burned all up in the ears where anger lives when folks pontificate about how our urban, poor are just shiftless and mismanaging fools because they cannot figure out how make healthy meals on their pathetic budgets. Then a long list of artery hardening goodies are trotted out as "healthy". Talk about an excuse. An excuse not to look at policy and use brain cells to solve a public problem.
Hey, your friends are right about the prices of produce in many Asian markets (and if you haven't tried Asian sweet potatoes, you're in for a real treat!). Thanks for pointing that out. It may not be worth it to you to shop in one, but for many families, that $10 could make a big difference in their weekly grocery budget.
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As for apples, some are a lot more expensive than others, too - gotta watch out for that. My favorites are Honey Crisps but they are high as cats' backs - easily twice as expensive as other "less sexy" apples.
Costco has trays of those honey crisp apples for cheap, but they are only available in season.
It's all in the meal planning strategies you use and the time you are willing to spend on food preparation. There is absolutely no denying though, just how ridiculously expensive those trips to the store are these days. I try to pick up cryopac meats at Cash & Carry, generally abt $1.50 lb for pork, $2.50 lb for beef, under $2 lb for IQF chicken breasts. It all comes home and gets cut/ground/repackaged in perfect proportions and for specific purposes, then labeled and frozen.
Just picked up a $25 lb bag of carrots for $8, a 10 lb bag of onions for less than $3, beef chuck roll on special for $2.49 lb, 5 lb bags of shredded Jack/Cheddar cheese for $11 each, etc. Unfortunately, too many people don't realize just how much they can save, if they are willing to doing some of the smaller packaging on their own. Just bought a box of "zipless" pint sized freezer bags...$9/500. Those small bags are used to put portions in, which are then put in either airtight tubs or good ziplock freezer bags. The freezer bags are reusable, because you're putting clean packages in them.
I agree with Julia though, you really CAN buy processed foods cheaper. If you fill your cupboard with pasta and rice dishes, when they come on sale....with cans of spaghetti sauces and bags of cheap pasta....fill your fridge and freezer with margarine and processed cheese foods, and processed meat products, frozen and canned vegetables when they come on sale...you can feed your family on practically nothing.
Oh...and yes...I DO keep a variety of "soup bases" on hand, not boullion...but soup bases, just the same. Yuuuummmm. Are they in the "most healthy food choice" column? Nope, but they're awesome shortcuts and can really help the budget. They're pricey, initially, but because you use so little, that cost is spread out over a long period of time.
We are lucky. We have local growers and a very large eat local movement. And those of us who can regularly donate fresh produce to our food shelves and the like here. The growers themselves are very clever about how to get their product into needy bellies as well. But I get burned all up in the ears where anger lives when folks pontificate about how our urban, poor are just shiftless and mismanaging fools because they cannot figure out how make healthy meals on their pathetic budgets. Then a long list of artery hardening goodies are trotted out as "healthy". Talk about an excuse. An excuse not to look at policy and use brain cells to solve a public problem.
Sigh.
I've been "the urban poor." I know how many of the urban poor live, and feed their families. I've seen poor families make great diet decisions and I've seen poor families on the same income make terrible diet decisions.
The odds of me successfully changing the food system in place in this country are slim to none. But I have a much higher chance of being able to help one family make better dietary decisions on a tight budget, and this can make a huge difference in their lives and in the futures of their kids. So I choose to expend my energy in that direction. You may choose to rail against Monsanto instead, and if so, that's fine for you. What are you actually DOING other than complaining to change the situation?
Oh come on - do I really have to explain that two buillon cubes in a pot of beef stew for flavoring isn't "too much salt?"
There you and I disagree. Bullion is not food, and salt for flavor is not healthy. And you vast wealth of knowledge on healthy eating isn't healthy or cheap.
I agree with Julia though, you really CAN buy processed foods cheaper. If you fill your cupboard with pasta and rice dishes, when they come on sale....with cans of spaghetti sauces and bags of cheap pasta....fill your fridge and freezer with margarine and processed cheese foods, and processed meat products, frozen and canned vegetables when they come on sale...you can feed your family on practically nothing.
Oh, there's no doubt that a package of ramen noodles costs less than a bowl of homemade beef stew. And Dinty Moore beef stew (8 oz per serving) may cost 1-2 cents less than a 12 oz serving of homemade beef stew - but oz for oz it's no cheaper. My point is that often, families on a budget just don't really realize how much more economical it is to cook from scratch RATHER THAN run through the drive thru or buy a bunch of frozen pizzas and serve them with soda. Then they hear others validate their very poor food choices by saying, "Well, they live in an urban area/Fresh fruits and veggies are SO expensive/it just can't be done/etc etc" and they never really give it a try.
Let's make this real simple. If you're on a very tight budget and you say you can't afford to cook from scratch, but you've got sodas and chips and frozen dinners, etc in your grocery cart - then it's more a matter of poor choices rather than simply budgetary issues. Often people truly don't think these things through or even try to cook from scratch, buy in bulk, etc.
And I've not heard one person address the issue of WIC food for families with small children, though I've repeatedly brought up the subject. If a family is truly below the poverty line and they have small kids, infants, or a pregnant woman in the house, they qualify for WIC assistance, which offers a truly amazing amount of very nutritious food -much of which can be used in "cooking from scratch." I can't tell you how many women I've known over the years who just don't sign up, or who don't use all their coupons, or who trade their WIC coupons for other services (often hair, nails, etc). I've heard women make fun of the healthy WIC foods - "My kids won't eat that ****!" That sort of thing.
Yes, nutrition is, as throughout history, a problem for the poor. That problem shouldn't be COMPOUNDED by their own poor decisions when it comes to their families' nutrition.
This talk about food costs increasing is a little off-base. In point of fact, Americans spend a lower percentage of their incomes than ever before on food, and less than any other country. So it's not the high cost of food that makes parenting expensive.
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It may not be worth it to you to shop in one, but for many families, that $10 could make a big difference in their weekly grocery budget. 
