Why do many people overeat chips, cereals, cakes, puddings, and other ultraprocessed foods despite knowing those foods may not be healthy? According to emerging science, it may be due to manufacturing processes that “predigest” raw food ingredients — creating ultraprocessed foods that bypass the body’s signals of fullness.

To manufacture cheap, delicious food that is packaged for convenience, basic food crops such as corn, wheat, and potatoes are dissembled into their molecular parts — starchy flours, protein isolates, fats and oils — or what manufacturers call \