Vegetables are not that “gated.” Processed foods that are “health washed” are gated, the stuff that’s in the health food sections or organic sections of stores. The problem is with fresh food is that it cannot always be consumed before spoiling, and waste is painful if you’re poor, processed foods are quick and easy when you’re working 2-3 jobs and are shelf stable for much longer periods, and on top of that people just don’t always learn how to cook fresh or do things like meal prep for a week. The time just isn’t there.

Yeah, the shopping access part is true. I frequently make 2-3 trips to the store for meals in a week thanks to close-by stores and the convenience of a vehicle. If you’re poor and maybe have to take public transportation (in the US) it makes groceries a whole other chore you don’t have time for.

The reality is the majority of all healthy food in the US is gated behind high prices

Seems so odd to me, here in the UK some of the cheapest foods are things like carrots, potatoes, beans, oats. Things that people should be eating more of.

Don't have enough time is the next excuse I hear. I just made lunch in seconds by combining the free milk at work with some roughly ground oats. Along with some dried fruit. Incredibly cheap meal and takes far less time than walking to the McDonalds across the road to order a burger. Don't like milk? Use water, I only use milk because its free and cold. Cold lunch is nice at this time of year.

And hormone issues can play a huge role in how your body processes and uses the fuel you give it. It's not always as simple as calories in/out.

That is not all that accurate; “muscle mass” lost during a relatively short fast (1-2 days) is due to glycogen depletion - ie. you’re burning your sugar stores, and your body sheds 3-4mL of stored water for every gram of glycogen burned.

If you stop to think about it, it’s a bit nonsensical to claim that the body would burn additional calories (that it doesn’t have) to convert existing muscle into fat, rather than just burn existing fat stores as a fall-back source of energy.

Muscle breakdown only really begins when the body starts to experience a significant shortfall in required essential amino acids over a prolonged period of time, or significant physical stress.

That just means the person needs less calories to maintain weight. In order to lose weight, they still need to consume less calories than they burn.