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I've been thinking about this for many years. I really think flour is the best ratio of calories to dollar. However, I've been unable to satisfactorily quantify the energy and time costs into equivalents.

In Germany I'm able to buy 1kg of flour for about 50 euro cents at Edeka. I don't know how much bread that makes, but it is A LOT. I'm certain that it is significantly more than 2880 calories.

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Flour is clearly the winner vs. peanut butter when comparing price per calories. At Walmart.com it is $2.12 for a 5lb (2.26kg) bag which is about 8250 calories. But yeah, processing that into bread (home energy cost and time cost) is tough to calculate and probably depends on your situation.

Still there are in-between options - pasta for instance is more bang for your buck than peanut butter and is much easier to prep yourself than bread.

It's interesting this conversation evolved into one about the most cost-effective sources of calories. Unintentionally, it serves as a poignant reflection of how things are going in our times. Many people will need to consider cost of calories seriously soon, many already do so.

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