Basically don't eat food that comes in a box.

Eat fresh or frozen meats, vegetables, fruits, some whole grains.

In most supermarkets, shop around the perimeter and avoid everything in the center aisles.

Another way I've heard it stated: "single ingredient foods." And as you prepare them, try to keep them that way.

For example, adding a ton of butter to potatoes makes them 10x less healthy. More or less, calorically they become fries. Fries taste great but they should be an occasional treat, not a staple.

That’s really a question of what the rest of your lifestyle and diet looks like.

Potatoes and butter go really well together because it covers a more complete percentage of our dietary needs. If your diet mostly consists of veggies + starches (rice/potatoes/etc) + ultra lean meats then adding a little butter is actually a good idea. If you’re constantly eating fired chicken then it isn’t.

Keep in mind that if you buy a bunch of "let's pretend it's not processed" "healthy" foods and use them to cook a meal, you're a) creating an ultra-processed meal, and b) it now has a long list of ingredients, you're just not writing it down.

When you look at a box even single ingredients like sugar have a great deal more processing than you’re likely aware of. Chicken on the other hand is the kind of thing a single person can take from a live bird to a meal in a single day.

So, no if you’re cooking with essentially raw ingredients it’s not going to end up highly processed because you simply don’t have the time.