Processed food acts as a variable reward system that activates the dopamine motivation pathway.

“that's actually what processed food is doing is it's every time we eat a different ver we think we're eating a tortilla but it's like completely different than all the other weird tortilla Ultra process tortillas on the Shelf so every time we eat tortilla and our brain is this incredible prediction machine and as it's coming towards our mouth we're predicting what the load is going to be but we have no idea is it a Coke Zero is it a Diet Coke with Aspartame is it is it a regular Coke it all tastes the same but the nutrients that our gut are totally different so we end up actually triggering the motivation Pathways because of process food representing a variable reward”