>>211791261The definition of ultra processed food is not "expansive".
The most defining factor of ultra-processed food are not the contents or the ingredients but the convenience aspect of it.
You could go to a restaurant and order an exact replica of a Lay's Chips or a Snicker bar and it wouldn't quality to get the designation of Nova 4 (ultra-processed food) at least in spirit despite being almost 1:1 copy because you actively had to exert effort to make it for you and you had to exert active conscious effort to go the restaurant instead of hobbling from your car to the gas station counter while performing errands, picking it up only to snack it in your driver's seat on your way home.
The author of Nova food classification was studying the weird shif that happened when he was growing up where poor people were malnourished and richfags were fat to the opposite of richfags being fit and healthy while poorfags ballooning in size, which is a direct result of the appeareance and cheap prices of cheap, calorie dense "convenience foods" which are easy to ship across the country and have extremely long shelf life.
The most important qualities of ultra-processed foods are the the extremely high calorie density which is a direct byproduct of the manufacturing effort focused on extending usable shelf life of the product by replacing water contents with various fats like oils to prevent it from spoiling and the packaging and marketing in such a way to encourage and enable the consumption of said products in environments that are not associated with food consumption ie. at a desk, in front of the TV, in a car. Basically "snacks".