Eating lots of highly processed foods like chips, sodas, and frozen meals can make you gain weight and worsen your 'bad' cholesterol compared to 'good' cholesterol—even if you eat the same number of calories as someone eating whole foods.

If you swap just a little bit of butter or fatty meat in your diet with healthier fats like those in nuts or fish, you might lower your bad cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease by a small amount.

People who eat a lot of highly processed foods like chips, sugary snacks, and frozen meals tend to eat more calories and gain more weight than those who eat whole foods, even when they’re not trying to.

Eating a lot of highly processed foods like chips, sugary snacks, and frozen meals is linked to a higher chance of developing heart, kidney, and metabolism problems, and even dying sooner.

Eating lots of typical Western junk food — like fries, soda, and sweets — doesn’t seem to make heart problems worse for people who already have stable heart disease, even when you account for things like age, smoking, and exercise.

Eating foods high in saturated fat, like butter and red meat, doesn't appear to raise your risk of heart attacks, strokes, or other heart problems, according to a big review of long-term studies on thousands of people.