Like that definition doesn't seem to work when there's foods where the commercial variant is made differently to the normal version.
Like that definition doesn't seem to work when there's foods where the commercial variant is made differently to the normal version.
A homemade cake is minimally processed. The flour and sugar are processed but nothing that heavily alters it.
A commercial cake on the other hand has stabilizers, ph balancers, etc.
You're over thinking it. Almost nothing made at home is ultra processed unless you're doing some weird sausage making. If you can name the ingredients easily, it probably isn't ultra processed.
The extra stuff in UPFs interacts with your body in ways that you are not prepared for and some of them are designed to make you consume more. The first example that comes to mind is the sodium added to make you tolerate more sugar.