You might be wondering if every news outlet in the U.S. made a new year's resolution to cover these things called ultra-processed foods.

It seems like everybody is talking about their effects on health and weight, and they

include lots of things we wouldn't necessarily consider junk food. From KERA in Dallas, this is

think. I'm Chris Boyd. Okay, yes, flaming hot Cheetos and Skittles and sodas, those are ultra-processed

foods. But then so are some, but not all, of the breakfast cereals,

bread, canned soups, and frozen meals in your favorite grocery store, stuff many of us

have eaten in our whole lives without imagining them to be bad choices in the real world,

where we don't all have the time to cook every single meal from scratch out of whole ingredients.

We wanted to learn about the latest research into ultra-processed foods, what they can do to our bodies and how we can spot them in the wild.

And for that, we have invited Well columnist Jancy Dunn of the New York Times.

She's author of the Times series titled The Well Challenge, Five Days to Happier, Healthyer Eating.

Jansy, welcome back to think.

Thank you so much.

At this point, we've all at least heard the chatter about ultra-processed foods.

What does that term actually refer to?

Okay, so almost all of our food is processed or changed from its natural state to some

extent if a food has been chopped or cleaned or cooked, it's processed. But ultra-processed food is

something different. So ultra-process foods or UPFs are defined as foods that you

typically couldn't make in your own kitchen because you don't have the ingredients and you don't have

the equipment unless you have a jar of methyl cellulose in your pantry, you're not going to be making it.

And they contain ingredients, UPFs, that broadly speaking change the texture, shelf life,

flavor, or color of a food.

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