Your questions, answered

What counts

• Has the FDA defined ultra-processed food?Not yet. A first proposed definition went to the White House for review on August 10, 2026, and its text is still unpublished. Researchers and the CDC use NOVA.
• Processed vs ultra-processed food: what's the difference?Processed is whole food plus a kitchen ingredient, like cheese or canned beans. Ultra-processed adds something a kitchen doesn't keep, like whey or a flavoring.
• What are the four NOVA groups?Whole foods, kitchen ingredients (salt, sugar, oil), processed foods (the two together), and ultra-processed. It sorts food by how it's made and leaves nutrition out.
• What is ultra-processed food?Food with at least one ingredient a home kitchen doesn't keep: a sugar like maltodextrin, a protein isolate, a hydrogenated oil, or a flavoring, color or emulsifier.
• Which foods are ultra-processed?Soda, candy and packaged snacks, and also most packaged bread, fruit yogurt, breakfast cereal, oat milk and protein powder. Frozen vegetables and dried pasta aren't.

Is it ultra-processed?

• Are diet drinks ultra-processed?Yes: sweeteners, colors and flavors. They add almost no calories, and the 2026 US guidelines still say to limit low-calorie sweeteners. Sparkling water is the swap.
• Are frozen vegetables processed?Plain frozen vegetables are whole food, group 1. Freezing is one of the changes NOVA counts as barely processing at all. Sauced and seasoned bags can be ultra-processed.
• Are protein bars ultra-processed?Almost always: protein isolates, flavors, sweeteners. 93 of 97 US bars we checked had a marker. Use one when it does a job, like a long day with no meal.
• Is bread ultra-processed?Most packaged sliced bread is, usually from added gluten or an emulsifier. A loaf of flour, water, salt and yeast isn't. Packaged whole wheat still beats white on fiber.
• Is cheese ultra-processed?Cheddar, parmesan and most block cheese are processed, group 3: milk, cultures and salt. Wrapped process cheese slices, made with emulsifying salts, are ultra-processed.
• Is dark chocolate ultra-processed?A bar of cocoa, sugar and cocoa butter is processed, group 3. Soy lecithin or a flavoring makes it ultra-processed. Of 97 US bars we checked, 40 had neither.
• Is Greek yogurt ultra-processed?Plain Greek yogurt, milk and cultures, is whole food, group 1. Flavored cups with a flavoring, a sweetener or a thickener are ultra-processed. Add your own fruit.
• Is oat milk ultra-processed?About two in three US cartons are: a gum like gellan, a flavoring or an emulsifier. Oats, water, oil and salt alone would be processed. Plain milk is whole food.
• Is pasta ultra-processed?Dried pasta of flour and water is whole food, group 1, the same as plain oats. Frozen pasta meals and instant noodles with flavor packets are ultra-processed.
• Is peanut butter ultra-processed?Peanuts and salt is processed, like salted nuts. A jar that adds fully hydrogenated oil has a NOVA marker, and palm oil doesn't. The jar's label decides, so check yours.
• Is plant-based meat ultra-processed?Most are. In German stores 88% had a marker, often a flavoring. In a US trial they still lowered LDL against red meat. Tofu, beans and tempeh are the whole food version.
• Is protein powder ultra-processed?Yes, even a three-ingredient whey. Whey protein is on NOVA's list by definition, which is about how it's made. A shake that replaces a pastry is still a good trade.
• Is sourdough ultra-processed?Sourdough of flour, water, salt and starter is processed, group 3. A supermarket loaf with added wheat gluten or an emulsifier is ultra-processed. Check the label.

Labels and ingredients

• Are emulsifiers bad for you?They keep oil and water mixed. In an 11-day trial in 16 people, the emulsifier CMC changed gut bacteria. A big French study saw small links to heart disease. Early days.
• How can you tell if a food is ultra-processed?Check the ingredient list for one thing a kitchen doesn't keep: a sugar like dextrose, a protein isolate, a hydrogenated oil, or a flavor, color, gum or sweetener.
• Is carrageenan bad for you?It's a thickener from red seaweed, in some dairy and plant milks. The FDA allows it. The worries started in mice, and the first trial in people was small and mixed.
• What does "natural flavors" mean?Flavor taken from a plant or animal source and concentrated, says the FDA. It's still a flavoring, so NOVA puts the food in group 4, natural or not.
• What is maltodextrin?Starch, usually from corn, broken into short chains of glucose. It turns up in powders, seasonings and sauces, and it's one of NOVA's markers of ultra-processed food.

How bad is it?

• Does ultra-processed food cause depression?Studies link it to more depression, 34% to 49% more in the biggest one, but can't show cause. A diet trial helped. Eat for your mood the way you'd eat for your heart.
• Does ultra-processed food cause diabetes?It goes with more type 2 diabetes, about 12% more risk for each extra 10% of your diet. But whole grain bread, cereal and yogurt, all group 4, went with less.
• Does ultra-processed food make you gain weight?It makes people eat more. On the NIH ward it was 508 calories a day and 2 pounds in two weeks. In England, people lost half as much weight on it over 8 weeks.
• How much ultra-processed food is too much?No US guideline sets a number. US adults get 53% of their calories from it. meals.guide's plate line is 30%, and which foods they are counts more than the exact share.
• Is ultra-processed food addictive?For some people it acts like it. About 14% of adults and 12% of kids meet a food addiction scale, mostly for sweets and salty snacks. Speed explains a lot of it.
• Is ultra-processed food really that bad?In three small trials people ate more or lost less on it. Big studies link it to heart disease, diabetes and depression, but most of that evidence rates low quality.
• Why is ultra-processed food so hard to stop eating?It's soft, dense and fast. People ate it 17 calories a minute faster on the NIH ward, so more got in before fullness caught up. Harder food slows you down.

Eating less of it

• How do I eat less ultra-processed food?Swap the packaged things you buy every week, one a week: the sandwich bread, the cereal, the drink, the snack. Each swap repeats every time you eat it.
• Is eating less ultra-processed food more expensive?Often a bit. On the NIH ward, the unprocessed menu's ingredients cost $151 a week against $106. A 2024 USDA menu study found the same direction, and shorter shelf life.
• What should I eat for breakfast instead of cereal?Oatmeal, eggs or plain Greek yogurt with fruit, all whole food. Swapping corn flakes for oatmeal adds 4 g of protein and about 3 g of fiber a bowl.

Kids, GLP-1 and sport

• Does ultra-processed food matter on a GLP-1?When you eat less, every bite carries more of your protein and fiber. Keep group 4 foods that do a job, like a protein shake, and drop the ones that only add calories.
• How much ultra-processed food do kids eat?About 62% of their calories, more than adults (CDC, 2021 to 2023), and most at ages 6 to 11. Swap the lunchbox and the breakfast bowl, and skip the food fear.

For adults looking at what they eat. It explains how food is made and doesn't grade your food or diagnose anything.