Somehow I'd missed the memo that the whole story about the identification of ultraprocessed foods being a problem began in the 90's in Brazil.
I also questioned the definition at the time of what constitutes an ultraprocessed food, especially since they began with this:
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The researchers found that people were purchasing less sugar, salt, cooking oils and staples like rice and beans, and more processed foods like sodas, sausages, instant noodles, packaged breads and cookies.
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This points up a lot of the faults we've seen in the definition of UPFs: They see buying sugar, and cooking oils to cook at home as no problem. But somehow if you buy food that use those ingredients, it's a problem. Sausages - meat stuffed into a casing, smoked and/or preserved with salt is ultraprocessed, despite being a process that has existed for thousands of years.
Their classification of what constitutes unprocessed and minimally processed, processed culinary ingredients, processed, and ultraprocessed are also a problem - if you bake a loaf of bread at home using processed ingredients, that's no problem. If you buy that loaf of bread ready made, it's a problem.
By that logic, if you make candy bars and potato chips in big batches at home from ingredients in those first 3 categories - no problem. If you eat a store bought candy bar or single serving bag of potato chips, that's a problem.
There's also this little gem:
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Dr. O’Connor questioned whether it’s helpful to group such “starkly different” foods — like Twinkies and breakfast cereals — into one category. Certain types of ultraprocessed foods, like sodas and processed meats, are more clearly harmful than others. UPFs like flavored yogurts and whole grain breads, on the other hand, have been associated with a reduced risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
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I see little difference between most breakfast cereals and twinkies: both have lots of sugar and starch. For that matter, not much difference in the nutrition in flavored yogurts and whole grain bread either. They're both not much more than carbs.
The worst part of this is that the US can't figure out what to do about UPFs.