*regular food isn't branded

But... regular food isn't allowed to remain boring. That's why you see all those gimmicky Instagram posts about "rainbow unicorn colored grilled cheese" or whatever. Regular food is hyped up just as much as candy, but you can't really tell because regular food is branded by companies the same way candy is.

And yes, wanting to eat sugar is a very natural thing for children. It feeds into their reward system because of its caloric density way better than any other non-sweet food.