I see people complaining that we don't eat "real food" just "food-like substances", Or that modern foods are overprocessed.

Well, let me point out a few staple foods in some parts of the world:

Manioc. It's extracted from a root that gets mashed to a pulp, and then the pulp rinsed thouroughly with water until the water runs off clear. Note that the milky liquid that runs off is used to poison fish to harvest them. Anyway, the pulp gets the excess water pressed out and is cooked up as a sort of flatbread.

Sago. You pulp the core of the sago palm tree and rinse it out, much like you do with manioc. And you cook it much the same.

Tapioca is yet another staple food that is extracted after similar processing.

These are just the first examples of foods that get processed fairly extensively to get something edible (and bland!).

Processing food goes *way* back. And it's sometimes fairly extensive. Modern food may be processed, but even if it's more processed, it's the continuation of an ancient practice.

Cheetos aren't *that* much more processed than manioc or sago,. Velveeta? Well ok, some things are beyond the pale.

But even there, take a good look at how cheese is made.