Specific bacteria in your gut are involved in compulsive eating and obesity

Medical Xpress / Federation of European Neuroscience Societies / Gut ^ | June 26, 2024 | Dr Elena Martín-García et al

[ConservativeMind]

A team of researchers has identified specific bacteria in the gut that are associated with both mice and humans developing an addiction to food that can lead to obesity. They have also identified bacteria that play a beneficial role in preventing food addiction.

Prof. Martín-García used the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS 2.0) to diagnose food addiction.

She and her colleagues investigated the gut bacteria in mice who were and were not addicted to food and found an increase in bacteria belonging to a group called the Proteobacteria phylum and a decrease in bacteria belonging to the Actinobacteria phylum in the food-addicted mice. These mice also had a decrease in the amount of another type of bacteria called Blautia from the Bacillota phylum.

The researchers used the YFAS to classify 88 patients into those who were addicted or not addicted to food. Similar to the findings in mice, decreases in Actinobacteria phylum and Blautia were seen in those who were food-addicted and increases in Proteobacteria phylum. Further analyses showed how the findings in humans correlated with those in mice.

Prof. Martín-García said, "The findings in both mice and humans suggested that specific microbiota could be protective in preventing food addiction. In particular, the strong similarities in the amount of Blautia underlined the potential beneficial effects of this particular gut bacteria. Therefore, we investigated the protective effects of oral administration of lactulose and rhamnose, which are non-digestible carbohydrates known as 'prebiotics' that can increase the amount of Blautia in the gut. We did this in mice and found that it led to an increase in the abundance of Blautia in mice feces in parallel with dramatic improvements in food addiction. We saw similar improvements when we gave the mice a species of Blautia called Blautia wexlerae orally as a probiotic.

[Vaduz]

Agree Greek yogurts work no sugar have protein too.