The irony is that for one of the first times in history – at least in the West – getting raw calories is cheaper than ever. Think about it. Some of the least expensive food is actually extremely calorie dense: candy bars, fast food and junk food. You can get a supersized combo at Mickey Dees for under $5 dollars and consume more than half of your daily energy requirements in that one meal.

Candy bars and soda are another example, thanks to that low-cost, high-calorie sweetener beloved by Iowa corn growers (along with ethanol): high fructose corn syrup. HFCS is in nearly everything because it’s an inexpensive source of sugar — much cheaper than honey or cane sugar. And because it’s so inexpensive, manufacturers can use more of it. Indeed, vast amounts of the corn surplus the government subsidizes each year is converted into HFCS, which then, interestingly enough, finds its way into the Government-sponsored school lunch program (chocolate pudding, anyone?)

Even a bag of potatos, which is about as calorie dense as any whole food, is less than $5 on sale.

What HAS gotten more expensive are foods that are minimally-processed or not raised using the modern methods for boosting yeild and size — methods like growth hormones, pesticides and non-organic fertilizers. There is a reason farmers and livestock companies use these chemicals — they increase yields and drive down the cost for consumers.

So it’s really less a question of would you pay more for less calories (since in reality, with the typical American diet, it’s actually the opposite), but would you pay more for foods that were less processed, or were raised without the methods that allow farmers and manufacturers to sell them inexpensively at the grocery store?

Empty calories are still dirt cheap, it’s nutrient-dense, organic foods that have become expensive. And, of course, this is why certain foods were more scarce 100 years ago, before the advent of chemical fertilizers and herbicides.

Of course, if you really wanted to eat whole foods cheaply you’d just grow them yourself. It’s not that hard.

Great topic.