I understand your issue with the “nebulous” terminology. The problem I see is with the definitions and distinctions per se. Where would we draw the line between a twinkie and some baked food that we (rightfully) consider food, such as a bread-type cake. The continuum of food processing from an unprocessed apple to an ultraprocessed twinkie is difficult to partition into neatly differentiated sections. What has happened is that we have on one hand expanded the range of foods, their energy density, their palatability, and their availability, and on the other hand we have reduced the need to expand energy for the acquisition of food. What has remained the same is our genetically inherited hedonic reaction to palatable food. The only way to differentiate between what you consider real food and non-real food would be by somehow grading the degree of palatability. Chewing on a raw celery stalk is far less palatable (and obesity inducing) than munching on a twinkie (which I actually don’t consider palatable at all, but that’s a purely subjective issue). But this partitioning along the palatability scale is practically impossible, I think.