Ultra-processed food is tasty and easy. Is it bad for you?

Yet foods designed to be "hyperpalatable" with high fat, sugar or sodium often displace nutritionally dense foods in diets, studies say.

Food companies have positioned many of their products as health-conscious — such as "heart-healthy" Cheerios — but the main selling points for most packaged food remains taste, price and convenience. The nation's leading food companies, including Kraft, Nestle, Hormel, Post and Land O'Lakes, all sell products that fall into the ultra-processed category.

Processing is "part of a complex food system that helps consumers meet nutritional needs within their abilities, budget and preferences," General Mills wrote in the letter.

University of Minnesota nutrition professor Joanne Slavin, who served on the 2010 dietary guidelines advisory committee, agrees that processing is a necessary part of modern food production.

"If we get rid of all ultra-processed foods, food waste goes up, food costs go up, and people wouldn't be healthier," she said. "To say, 'avoid ultra-processed foods to prevent disease,' that's really misleading."

The ultra-processed debate comes right as the FDA is considering whether to regulate the term "healthy" on food labels or add warning labels for foods high in fat, sugar and salt. Harmening said that wouldn't have an effect on General Mills' business even as the company lobbies against the proposals.

"To the extent that consumers are more knowledgeable and care more about what's in their food, I think that's a benefit for us," he said. "We're happy to compete in that environment."

The Nova rating system, first proposed in 2009, initially brought the term "ultra-processed" to a wide audience. Nova describes processed foods on a scale from 1 to 4, from raw, or minimally processed, to ultra-processed.

Nova's rating scale climbs from whole foods and shelled nuts to culinary ingredients like oil and honey then up to processed foods like potato chips and cheese and ultimately to ultra-processed foods like fish sticks or protein shakes.

A widely cited 2013 study on ultra-processed foods gave this definition: "Ready-to-consume, are entirely or mostly made not from foods, but from industrial ingredients and additives, and are extremely profitable."

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