Wait, not wanting to expend a lot of energy and concentration to prepare food and opting for easy to make ultra-processed food is correlated to depression? Gee, I wonder which way the causation goes. (Don't want to used energy to make meal-> Depressed) or (Depressed -> Don't want to use energy to make meal)
It's also kind of a viscous cycle because making those ultra processed products healthier is more expensive which companies don't want/people can't afford so they're convenient but bad for you, which doesn't help your well-being or energy levels.
I would also think it has something to do with ones financial standing. If you don't have a lot of money a lot of the time ultra processed is all you can afford and high financial stress can also be a driver of depression or other mental health issues
I myself do know how to cook because I've previously worked in kitchens. Some people choose to not subject themselves to that environment and that's their choice, not that it's necessary to work in kitchens.
Learning things takes time, lots of time, and if you really screw up something cooking, you've wasted ingredients and therefore money that one may not be able to afford to waste during a learning process. Then we consider that a lot of people (in the US specifically) have to work 2 jobs to not go homeless, further cutting their time to learn things. When you're in poverty, it's not just money that you're short on, it's time too which is a valuable commodity that a lot of people take for granted.
Think of the larger picture before you go on talking about things you don't understand.
If solving these issues was as easy as "just do it" don't you think we wouldn't be facing all these issues in America?
That's horseshit. People have been cooking for themselves for fucking centuries. it's not that hard to learn or do. Not does it have to take much time.