A sweeping analysis of dietary research has arrived at a quiet but consequential conclusion: the small, ordinary servings of ultra-processed food that fill so many daily routines are not as harmless as their familiarity suggests. Even an additional hundred grams per day — a snack bar, a handful of crackers — correlates with measurably elevated risk of serious illness and early death. The finding lands in a landscape where the food industry itself cannot agree on what 'ultra-processed' means, a definitional impasse that shapes not only policy but the very terms by which people understand what t