Also, how do you define processed? I eat Amish farmers' cheese every day, and it is expensive. Decades ago I knew how to make my own farmer's cheese which would be an order of magnitude cheaper. I plan to go back to it once I figure out where I will be hanging the cheesecloth-wrapped sack of cheese-in-the making.

I am not trying to reap any health benefits, though - I don't doubt that the Amish put wholesome unadulterated ingredients in their product. The plan is just to cut the costs - $5 roughly each little tub. Well, maybe I will feel emotionally healthier looking at a big batch of cheese preparing in my little kitchen. Maybe I will feel hpier and proud knowing that I am making a staple product myself. But these are all indirect benefits to emotional wellbeing. I would go on to say that when you cook for yourself - the effort you put into caring for yourself - you prepare an invisible emotional feast, too. So I see emotional benefits and cost cutting in cooking from scratch. But to believe that I would somehow feel better because the homemade farmers cheese is chemically better than the Amish farmers cheese looks like magical thinking to me. And then we go back to the questiob - what is processed food? With examples it will be easier to illustrate how fuzzy the term is.

Doritos
Kale chips made at home
Kale chips sold at a farmers market
Kale chips sold at Whole Foods
Kale chips sold at a regular grocery store
Dry pasta bought from a regular grocery store
Dry japanese buckwheat pasta bought from Trader Joe's
Quick oats
Soup made with dry porcini mushrooms and pearl barley
Any mass-produced cow dairy as opposed to small batch produced sheep and goat dairy
Etc.