Ah, that makes sense for the milk, and clears up how they're classifying ultraprocessed. Like you, I'm skeptical that this classification system is useful for d

Ah, that makes sense for the milk, and clears up how they're classifying ultraprocessed. Like you, I'm skeptical that this classification system is useful for determining healthiness. I can't see why you'd expect, for example, adding casein to a food to have similar health effects as adding soluble fiber or corn syrup or any other unrelated substance. I have a personal theory that to me seems like the simplest explanation for why junk food is fattening. It's not processing per se. It's simply that people will eat more calories when offered delicious, high-calorie foods. Put a bunch of bland highly processed tofu in front of me and I won't eat many calories. Give me some mostly unprocessed peanuts and raisins to munch on and I'll eat much more. Raw, unseasoned ingredients aren't optimized for taste and convenience, while processed foods often are. I'd also expect people eat more calories at a fine French restaurant (or any restaurant) for the same reason: they design their meals to be delicious. But no one is going to write an article saying delicious and convenient calorie-dense foods cause weight gain.