The So-Called “Healthy” Foods Raising Heart Disease Risk By 65%

Author:Ava DurginOctober 05, 2026
Assistant Health Editor
By Ava Durgin
October 05, 2026

Most people trying to eat better have already cut out the obvious stuff: the fast food runs, the gas station snacks, the midnight cereal binges. What they haven’t cut out is the flavored Greek yogurt with 15 grams of added sugar, the whole grain crackers made with seed oils and a stabilizer they can’t pronounce, or the protein cookies with vegetable glycerine and modified food starch.

This is the sneaky part of ultra-

More of the good stuff, please 

The researchers aren’t asking anyone to cook everything from scratch or reject convenience entirely. The ask is more targeted: recognize that “ultra-

Learning to scan an ingredient list for signs of industrial processing (things like emulsifiers, flavor enhancers, and texturizers) turns out to be more useful than obsessing over any single macronutrient. The report explicitly calls out that foods marketed as “healthier” are often still ultra-processed, which is worth remembering next time something comes in a package covered in wellness claims.

The takeaway

This week, aim to swap out one or two UPFs per day for something minimally processed. Maybe you grab an apple over your usual snack bar. Or you opt for a handful of almonds instead of the chips, a smoothie rather than a prepackaged shake. These small changes add up over time and begin to shift what you consider real food.