"Processed" is hopelessly vague and tells you nothing about the manner and the scale of the processing. According to the article, a processed food is one which is "manufactured by adding salt, sugar, oil, or other processed culinary ingredients to minimally processed foods."
So, it's anything with any amount of salt, sugar, or oil.
How much?
An Impossible Burger trivially meets the definition of a processed food. In more meaningful terms:
• An Impossible patty has 370mg of sodium. That is actionable information and should inform your dieting, should you choose to eat one. But with the WHO suggesting a daily limit of 2000mg (the American Heart Association aims lower, 1500mg), a single 370mg patty alone isn't anything to be scared of. Yes, it's a substantial portion of your budget, but if you're committing to eating a burger, how much more are you actually planning to eat? It should be a significant fraction of all of the food you're eating today, regardless of the salt content!
• Impossible patties have less than 1g of added sugars. At that low quantity, I don't much care.
• Impossible meat contains coconut and sunflower oil. Coconut is one of the healthiest options for a food oil, whereas sunflower is sometimes high in omega-6 (the ingredients list is not specific enough to tell). I would love to know the relative proportions, but I'll content myself with knowing that coconut is higher on the list.
So at the end of the day, an Impossible burger seems like a fine meal to me. By my standards, it doesn't clearly raise alarm on any of the three axes that define a "processed" food. Take that scare word away and let's deal in material facts.
> "Processed" is hopelessly vague and tells you nothing about the manner and the scale of the processing.
Hmmm ... it's a widely used term of art in nutrition around which there is a lot of consensus.
> An Impossible Burger trivially meets the definition of a processed food.
It clearly meets (ha) the definition of ultra-processed foods, afaict. You can find the definitions elsewhere too.
> an Impossible burger seems like a fine meal to me. By my standards ...
You should eat what you like, of course. But we are entitled to your own opinions, not to our own facts. Your personal standards and mine have no bearing on the health of Impossible foods.
So, it's anything with any amount of salt, sugar, or oil.
How much?
An Impossible Burger trivially meets the definition of a processed food. In more meaningful terms:
• An Impossible patty has 370mg of sodium. That is actionable information and should inform your dieting, should you choose to eat one. But with the WHO suggesting a daily limit of 2000mg (the American Heart Association aims lower, 1500mg), a single 370mg patty alone isn't anything to be scared of. Yes, it's a substantial portion of your budget, but if you're committing to eating a burger, how much more are you actually planning to eat? It should be a significant fraction of all of the food you're eating today, regardless of the salt content!
• Impossible patties have less than 1g of added sugars. At that low quantity, I don't much care.
• Impossible meat contains coconut and sunflower oil. Coconut is one of the healthiest options for a food oil, whereas sunflower is sometimes high in omega-6 (the ingredients list is not specific enough to tell). I would love to know the relative proportions, but I'll content myself with knowing that coconut is higher on the list.
So at the end of the day, an Impossible burger seems like a fine meal to me. By my standards, it doesn't clearly raise alarm on any of the three axes that define a "processed" food. Take that scare word away and let's deal in material facts.