Three Hours...

...that's how long it takes to make a healthy meal from scratch, if you're serious about the "from scratch" part.  This theory has been pretty well established in the micro-kitchen.  Take a meal that involves grinding chicken thighs, spiralizing zucchini noodles, and chopping mushrooms as the first stage of meal prep.  Then there's the issue of baking bread, which has to be started more than three hours in advance, but still requires "hands-on" time to be factored in.

Many television chefs show 30-Minute meals, but then they have someone washing the dishes and cleaning up behind them!  The three-hour theory takes into account that it takes time to assemble dishes, tools, etc., and quite a bit of time to clean up -- even if you abide by the "clean as you go" process.  Part of the issue is that trying to fit in lean/healthy meats, low sodium and fresh ingredients, including all three food groups (plus fungus!), means the processing of multiple ingredients.

A healthy diet in the Microcosm doesn't rely heavily on one particular food group and doesn't cut out others.  What it tries to avoid, is sodium, added sugars, preservatives and fillers.  Cooking from scratch is the healthiest way to go, but out of the question for those with super busy lives.  Luckily, one of us has time to work on this -- to shop economically and prepare conscientiously. 
It's easy to condemn those who opt for easy meals that are already prepared -- but the reality that doing it the healthy way requires more time than many can find.