Not all things labeled "processed foods" are bad, it seems. There are enough scientists that say the distinction is often hypocritical (example from an article: a factory-made carrot cake is labeled UPF, but a home-baked one isn't, even though they're practically the same thing). Sugar, fats, and lack of fiber make factory-food unhealthy, they say. Others add that we can't feed the growing metropolitan areas without it.
Just expanding on a peer post, but industrial made food tends to have a large number of preservatives, stabilizers, coloring agents, and much more added for commercial reasons. An obvious example of this is in something as simple as bread. If you've ever made homemade bread. It goes stale in a day or two, and it's hard as a rock shortly thereafter.
But that loaf you buy at the store? It'll generally be covered in mold before it gets hard, and that's quite the achievement since it also tends to be more resistant to mold as well! Bread should get hard. This is where a ton of old recipes come from. The Ancient Greeks would dip it in wine for breakfast, Euroland has bread soup/puddings, and even stuff in the US like Thanksgiving stuffings or croutons.
>a factory-made carrot cake is labeled UPF, but a home-baked one isn't, even though they're practically the same thing).
Actually they are not. "Practically" is carrying a lot of weight there. The factory baked cake will have a lot more extraneous ingredients and usually has a larger quantity of sugar and fat. Similar to how restaurant food generally has a lot more salt and fat than home cooked food.
Yes, right off the bat a factory made carrot cake will very likely contain dough conditioners, colors, and preservatives that no home cook would put in their scratch made version.
The direct impact of those extra ingredients alone or in combination is not entirely clear at this point, aside from building evidence that people whose diets include more of that seem to be less healthy.
Yep just a glance at the ingredients shows obvious differences. Other issues I've seen studies about include contaminants from conveyor belts, and for many snack foods, processing into smaller particles, effectively making them partially pre-digested.
WRT the carrot cake, I will say that while there is only a minimal physical difference, there is a practical difference. Making a carrot cake at home is a commitment, and most people won't frequently go to the trouble except on special occasions... But one from the grocery store can be acquired casually and without effort, and it's easy to eat a lot more of something when it requires no effort.
Every time I cook (and thats quite often) I put a bit different ingredients that some factory would put in since they are the cheapest variant.
Some stuff is BIO, cream or coconut milk are lower fat version, or carrots are are without residual pesticides. Less salt since we use less salt, and taste buds quickly adjust so its still adequately salty, a better mix of herbs and spices so taste is.. simply better, more refined. We use with much less sugar, the same as for salt above (if you eat sweet stuff sparingly then even mildly sweet stuff tastes amazingly, just don't go from one extreme to another).
