As soon as a food is chopped, diced, or cooked, it is considered processed. While there is no standardized definition of “processed food,” it simply means that we are in some way modifying a food from its original form. The part that adds to the confusion is that there are degrees in the level to which a food is processed and can affect your health. Only recently have researchers determined the need to define such levels. Defining processing levels will help researchers determine which foods may pose a greater risk of predisposing consumers to conditions such as obesity, high blood sugar, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. In 2016, the NOVA classification system decided to classify processed foods into four groups: unprocessed or minimally processed (group 1), processed culinary ingredients (group 2), processed foods (group 3), and ultra-processed food and beverage products. transformed (group 4) (Monteiro et al.,