zlacker

>>atestu+(OP)
Unfortunately there seems to be no good aligned definition of what (highly) processed food is. 1,2

Whole grain bread or infant formula can be “highly processed” despite very healthy.

In the end someone else cooks for you and packages it. They can cook healthy or not or in between, add a lot of salt or little, .. as always it’s more complex.

1: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41430-022-01099-1

2 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nutrition-research-r...

>>fabbbb+nX
I doubt the issue is with processed food. Basically everything we eat is processed (even fruit and veg is selectively bred and has been for decades if not centuries). Bread and pasta is fine.

Ultra-processed is where all of our issues are coming from. If you can't identify ingredients in something, or you see e-numbers, emulsifiers and such, it's UPF. Essentially any fast food, branded items, ready meals or heavily plastic wrapped long-shelf life stuff.

Cognitive decline and overweight conditions have risen in line with the uptake of UPF. A 10% increase in UPF leads to 25% increase in the chance of dementia. UPF lead to overeating, and the way they are processed causes them to cause insulin spikes in the body which lead to inflammation, including in the brain.