There's a wide range of "ultra-processed foods." A recent Nature Foods paper zoomed in on this https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-024-01095-7 and the graph rankings are shown below from @sciam.bsky.social
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/which-foods-are-the-most-ultraprocessed-new-system-ranks-them/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/which-foods-are-the-most-ultraprocessed-new-system-ranks-them/
Comments
Also, if you ever make both you'll see the difference.
One is a lot better for you.
Also, I am guessing there is a lot we don't know about how foods that look simple are actually put together.
The produce section does include washed baby lettuce, I guess some apples have wax coatings, there's cleaning/sanitizing, ripening factors, fungicides during storage, anti-browning agents on pre-cut produce, mineral oil on some root veg, etc.
😥
I don't know what's so hard about going to the farmers market, or the produce section, buying things that are not tightly wrapped in plastic or cut up in a plastic container.
Nuts are unprocessed if they just came off the tree, but you have to crack those walnuts open + you don't know what's been sprayed on the machinery, etc.
Unfortunately, too few people eat that way, so perhaps they don't want to do research on those foods.
We can forcibly impregnate cows, take their babies and their milk, supplement both their bodies and this milk with countless substances, filter said milk, fortify THAT -
And it’s less processed than cutting up some plants???