American cheese slices, Velveeta, Cheese Whiz, cheese spreads, nacho cheese are all NOVA group 4 ultra processed because they are industrial reformulations with added ingredients (like emulsifiers). Your average cheddar isn't.
And? For an "average cheddar" you still have to heat the milk, add enzymes, and age it and at the end you get something entirely different. Sounds like "processing" to me, or to use your words, "industrial reformulation."
So if cheese is a group three Nova classification "processed foods" then why did this study include cheese as literally the main component of the the "minimally processed meal?" Sounds like the authors very much consider cheese "minimally processed." Or at least less processed than peanut butter (literally just ground peanuts), which they put in the "highly processed meal."
You say "lines between get blurry" but I'm going to call it straight up meaningless bullshit since nobody agrees on anything or is talking about the same thing even when using the same framework. Once I read from an authoritative source that quesadillas are always ultra processed, like, by definition I realized that this whole concept is stupid.
Then you have weirdos coming in here talking about how "ultra processed food" is like tobacco and fraud, fucking hell, we've lost the plot.
[−]amanaplanacanal · 2026-10-11 Sun 10:57 UTC ·
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Although I probably agree with your point, most peanut butter sold in the US is not "just ground peanuts".
It sounds like there are things left out of the article, probably click through and read the study itself to get the real definitions.
You say "lines between get blurry" but I'm going to call it straight up meaningless bullshit since nobody agrees on anything or is talking about the same thing even when using the same framework. Once I read from an authoritative source that quesadillas are always ultra processed, like, by definition I realized that this whole concept is stupid.
Then you have weirdos coming in here talking about how "ultra processed food" is like tobacco and fraud, fucking hell, we've lost the plot.
It sounds like there are things left out of the article, probably click through and read the study itself to get the real definitions.