Most of the world lives off of something like dried beans/lentils and rice. If you buy them dried and in bulk, a big plate of food should cost you about 25 cents. And it's healthier than pretty much anything else you're going to end up buying.
fwiw, speaking of Whole Foods, the "organic" label is a giant scam. In this country, the giant corporations bought most of the seats on the board that determines what qualifies as "organic." They add new chemicals to that list all the time:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/b...t-big-companies-influence.html?pagewanted=all
And for imported food, it's even worse. If
I were to try to be an American organic food producer, I would get inspected, taxed, regulated, and fined so much that it's just not worth it But if I moved across the border to Mexico, I can douse all my crops in a hundred different poisons that are illegal to even sell in the US, then stamp it "organic" and ship it to the US. Under NAFTA, the US is not allowed to inspect or question the validity of labels on produce imports, because doing so is considered an "unfair restriction on trade." And then that poison-soaked food goes straight to Whole Foods, where all the rich people and hippies get to pat themselves on the back for spending three times what produce should cost, without realizing that they are feeding illegally toxic pesticide to their kids.
If you want healthy food, be as close as possible to its production. If you can't grow it yourself, try to buy it from the person who did. Farmer's Markets are great. A lot of small farms are surviving now by selling shares; a monthly fee gets you a portion of what they produce each month. You get to watch your own food be grown. That's much better than trusting a label, a high price, and a store full of patchouli-smelling hippies.
America's food production system is certainly circling the drain. I think that contributes to the fact that as a country we're fat, and the cost of healthcare is killing us, which is making us circle the financial drain as well.
