Hi
@centaur68 This is one of those questions where everybody will have an opinion - even scientists and medics working in related areas have different opinions.
First to definitions, anything raw is unprocessed, anything just cooked at home (or which could have been cooked at home) is minimally processed.
Processed is just taking it a step further.
Ultra-processed is where you need a long list of ingredients and factory processes in order to make it.
So I say, and what to a certain extent I do when/if unable to buy the top quality meat:
Choose 'whole', 'real' more traditional meats/foods over processed, but choose processed meats over ultra-processed non-meat foods.
Because humans have processed food since the discovery of how to make fire ( cooking food is processing it if only a little).
The main problems for me with studies ( food frequency questionnaires ) is that:
1. They lump let's say bacon or a high meat content sausage together with 'junk food' that needs a factory to produce it (i.e. you could never make it in a kitchen - even a restaurant kitchen) Then they say red meat is bad for us.
2. They ask make no distinction between eating minimally processed meat (a medium rare steak for example) and a cheap hot dog of unknown origin.
3. They are notoriously unreliable because people forget what they ate or respond with what they think would have been good for them to have eaten.
I hope this helps.