In my experience, having more “ultraprocessed foods” just removes almost all inertia to start eating. If you can just grab a bag of chips, throw something in the microwave, or get McD’s delivered, then it feels like you’re bound to overeat. Almost all the food in my house requires preparation unless it’s fruit or a carrot (which I’m not reaching for unless I’m actually hungry). While I think the study in the article is interesting and worth analyzing, I think for the average person the most relevant harm of ultraprocessed foods is in the author’s intro and conclusion: they are too convenient and result in overeating. Consider how easy it is to tell a “hungry” child to grab a snack out of the cupboard vs telling them to eat an apple or stop what you’re doing to make them a snack? It’s not so much a problem of chemical composition (though I’m sure that there could be issues there too) as it is a food culture problem. Other food culture issues include oversized portions and lack of vegetables and fiber-rich items at restaurant.i