The middle ground between real food and ultra-processed food? Great question, subject of an entire article (hmm). In short, eat food. Real food. Look at ingredients labels and shun the long ones. Focus on fruits, nuts, vegetables, beans, and if you love meat and it suits you, try to avoid too much red meat, and definitely avoid processed, packaged meats. Check out this excellent piece by longtime food writer Mark Bittman. He does not avoid many things he loves, even if they might not fit some hypothetical model diet. He’s just sensible about consumption and keeps it mostly between the buoys. His view of the best diet: “It’s food, real food, minimally processed, with as much as possible from the plant kingdom.”