I am no nutrition expert but I do have a pretty damn good track record of keeping myself alive, so I want to remind you all that "fed is best" also applies to adults. There's nothing you could eat (that has been deemed fit for human consumption, I don't mean asbestos you smartass) that would be worse for you than just straight-up not eating. No food is as bad as no food.
A protein bar isn't the best possible source of protein in your diet, but it's better than not getting that protein. Fresh fruits would be better than orange juice, but if your choices are between having the orange juice and not getting the vitamins at all, you drink the fucking orange juice.
If you were out at winter while barefoot, and your options were between wrapping random newspaper around your feet, or not having anything to protect your feet, you wouldn't think "newspapers are a worse option than proper shoes, therefore I shouldn't take this worse option" and go barefoot.
I didn't think of this the first time I ran across this post, but there's actually a fantastic book dedicated to this exact principle:
Cooking is Terrible: sadly, you still have to feed yourself
It's geared toward people who struggle a lot with preparing even simple meals, particularly neurodivergent or otherwise disabled people. To that end it includes a lot of suggestions along the lines of 'pick at least one food each from three of these five lists, put them on a plate, you have a meal.' (e.g. cheese slices, apple slices, lunch meat, crackers.)
(It is not geared toward people who need to follow a specific diet, to which they say, essentially, 'I assume you know what you need to replace.')
(Also the author is nonbinary, which is great, but still a side-note to how damn useful the book is)
And remember: adding ranch to vegetables does NOT remove the nutrients from those vegetables. It is not 'as bad as not eating vegetables at all.' YOU NEED THOSE NUTRIENTS.
