Cheap margarines and spreads, every specimen totally horrible, have the same fat content as butter. Unless the label says low-fat, in which case the concoction in question is even more horrible. You'd have to consume a huge amount of full-fat milk to put much weight on. "Junk food" is a bit vague. Ready meals tend to be slightly too small, in spite of the fact that they're often high-fat, high-salt and innocent of a decent supply of nutrients, so you soon find yerself reaching for the crisps and chocs. A great homemade pizza is a thing of beauty, but every supermarket specimen I've ever seen is high in fat and salt and composed of the cheapest ingredients they can get away with. Of course, you could always go out and buy a tub of tasteless chicken and fries from KFC (terrible), or go down the chippy and buy a cheap thousand calories (so what? Once in a while, what's not to like?)

I've just made a huge panful of ribollita. It took no skill and no effort and is very cheap. It's just carrots, onions, celery and garlic, all roughly chopped up and sautéed in EV olive oil for half an hour, then with two tins of chopped toms, two tins of cannellini beans, a good slug of tomato paste, chicken stock, a glug of cheap red wine (wash the grub down with the rest of the bottle later on), a sprig of rosemary and thyme wot I grow myself and a load of chopped-up kale (I use cavolo nero, a huge bag for a quid at Morrisons) added for the last twenty minutes. Grab some stale bread, rub it with olive oil and garlic, toast it, put it in a bowl and ladle the ribollita on top. Cheap, easy, nutritious, enough for two of us at least twice over, possibly three. Nice with some shavings of Parmesan and a drizzling of EV olive oil. Ribollita means reboiled, and the soup tastes even better for two, three or four more reheatings. All in one pot, and half an hour in the kitchen gives you two or three doses of delicious and really healthy grub.