"we are in danger of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” – pointing to a variety of foods or additives, such as sweeteners, whole grain bread or fortified breakfast cereals, that are often classed as ultra-processed but can do a lot of good."

Hog wash!

Consuming 150# of sugar a year(in US) is INSANE.I have a friend that uses real fruits to sweeten, not cane sugar. She also doesn't eat much grain as she gains. And look at the list of ingredients in commercially made breads. Yikes. Homemade is a different product entirely.

As for fortified breakfast cereals, have you seen the ingredients? Yikes. Europe doesn't fortify. Are we healthier than they are? I think not.

Minimally processed.

Grains need to be processed to eat them. Threshed, remove the outer fiber coating. Then decide if used whole or ground. The separation of germ from the starchy center is new to us, the last 100 years. Everything was whole grain prior.

As for breakfast cereal in my home: My kids ate leftover dinner for breakfast once I realized the problems with breakfast cereals.

Milk products can be minimally processed. Add salt and rennet,separate curds and whey, and age the curds. The whey is edible, too. Yogurt keeps the whey and curds together; other inoculants, not rennet, is used to thicken. Both heat the milk to kill pathogens, which while rare are deadly. Both make a food store longer without modern chemicals or refrigeration.

One processed food is cocoa. Im not giving that up! 😁

Imho, how its processed matters.