Processed foods often contain artificial sweeteners, chemicals to make them smooth, and toxins from packaging, which might interfere with how your body regulates hunger and fat storage.

Foods like cookies, chips, and sugary cereals are designed to be eaten quickly and taste super good, so people eat more before feeling full than they do with whole foods like fruits or beans.

Consumption of hyper-palatable processed foods, even at matched meal frequency, leads to adverse metabolic outcomes (e.g., elevated insulin, insulin resistance, increased adiposity) compared to whole, unprocessed foods.

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 lots of ultra-processed foods is linked to having several chronic diseases at once, feeling weaker, living with less quality of life, and having long-lasting body damage — especially in older people.

People who already have kidney problems or are older are more likely to be harmed by eating ultra-processed foods than healthy younger people.