Ezra Klein defends prepared foods:
If American eating habits are really going to change in the coming decades, it will be because of innovations in chain restaurants and grocery stores, not because everyone is making their own chicken stock. The trends toward less time, less cooking, and broader availability of premade foods is irreversible, and efforts to fight against it are doomed, in most cases, to fail. But premade foods can become healthier, and semi-prepared foods — like the pre-cut vegetables that now dot many supermarket produce aisles — can make cooking easier. It’s great to cook food from scratch, but it’s not, as so many suggest, a necessary prerequisite for eating healthy.
The Dish 