"Highly palatable" foods do this. One way to create those is through "highly processed" techniques.
> but I've yet to see any credible evidence for it.
Obesity is more common in the world where highly processed foods are more common. There is evidence. There is no RCT. This has nothing to do with "credibility" it's just "non-standard analysis."
So it's not just an issue of chemical composition but how we respond to these foods behaviorally.
A 7.5oz bag of potato chips is made using around 6-8 medium sized potatoes. Eating a whole bag of potato chips in one sitting is frighteningly easy to do. But I challenge anyone to eat 6-8 medium potatoes at once, despite being around the same amount of calories.
Going on a whole foods diet often results in weight loss without any increased hunger sensation.
You need something more rigorous than "there is a correlation" to support something that important.