Are ultra-processed foods always harmful? | Letters

I read Rachel Dixon’s piece (‘Avoid ingredients you don’t know’: 25 of the healthiest processed foods you can buy in the UK, 31 July) with wry amusement, segueing seamlessly into irritation.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are damaging health on a massive scale. Cheap, carb and sugar-laden, over-packaged foodstuffs are targeted at the poorest sections of society. They cannot afford £4.50 on a fancy niçoise salad or a litre of flavoured water in snazzy cans.

The Guardian isn’t helping by pointing Waitrose shoppers to overpriced hummus or falafel, or expensive ice-cream. That’s really not going to address the crisis of diabetes in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
Laurence N Mann
Twickenham, London

I feel the article by Rachel Dixon has missed an opportunity to enlighten readers about UPFs. We have been told that they pose some health risks – so what is a UPF? Is it a food made from certain ingredients, the way the food is manufactured (ie processed), or a combination of both? I have never enjoyed cooking, and with convenience foods I am only too happy to let someone else do it, so that I can enjoy the time saved to do something else. So when does a “convenience” food become a UPF?
Helen Grist
Honeybourne, Worcestershire