I respectfully disagree. Hyper-palatability is real. It may be subjective, but it's real. Personal example: for years, the only pork rinds I could buy here were a brand called Baken-ets. The only ingredients are pork skin, lard and salt. I always found it odd that a lot of folks here said they'd binge on pork rinds and had to be careful. I found them very blah and you couldn't pay me to eat more than a few. Well, I recently found a different brand in the ethnic section of a large grocery store, didn't think much of the ingredients, and proceeded to eat the entire bag. What's the difference, ingredients-wise? Garlic powder and MSG.

I strongly suspect virtually all junky restaurant food is the same way. We've bought Kernels popcorn seasoning at the grocery store. And what do you know, if I put them on plain pork rinds, suddenly I can pack away the entire bag. And my homemade burgers will never taste as good as McDonalds. I watched a kid put way too much grill seasoning on the burgers once, and my super-salty burger was kind of an eye-opener: "oh, so THAT'S what makes it taste like McDonalds."

Whenever DH wants to go to a restaurant, my low-carb gluten-free options are really unappealing to me (let's say chicken or steak with a side of veggies) because I could make the same meal at home for 1/4 of the cost. None of those meals are particularly great - because there's no hyperpalatability factor - sugar or wheat. (I consider salt and fat non-issues. It's the combination that deadens most peoples' satiety signals.)

If you can't relate, you're fortunate.