I still use the cheap foods when I'm puttering around in the meadows or doing something like farming and feeding live stock. If I need to make a raspberries runs to make meads I'll use the cheap food. My padded armor will keep me alive in the meadows even on cheap food. Same deal with a blueberry run in the black forest or a run along the shore in the swamps to get a few leech drops for healing meads.

If all else fails stick in your obliterator and use the end product to smelt ore.