Food: Is it too ultra-processed?

When I was a young adult living under my parents’ roof, my late father always made sure I had Beanee Weenees, Vienna sausage, potted meat and other such snacks to take to my graveyard-shift factory job.

Of course, I appreciated the display of paternal love; but Chris van Tulleken, author of “Ultra-Processed People,” would probably be aghast.

Granted, van Tulleken is not alone in sounding alarm bells about today’s ultra-processed foods — groceries characterized by arm-long lists of additives, kaleidoscopic clashes of dyes (“Mambo Number 5 is a color, right?”) and whole grains replaced with the assurance that “We allowed the shadow of a stalk of barley to fall across the vat.”