What is already known
Food addiction is a condition marked by a lack of control over eating and is linked to obesity, other eating disorders and changes in the gut microbiota’s composition. However, the mechanisms behind food addiction have been unclear.
What this research adds
Researchers studied the gut bacteria of mice and people who were and were not addicted to food. In mice addicted to food, the researchers found an increase in bacteria belonging to the Proteobacteria phylum and a decrease in bacteria belonging to the Actinobacteria phylum. These mice also had a decrease in the levels of Blautia bacteria. Similar patterns were observed in people addicted to food. Mice that were fed lactulose and rhamnose, two non-digestible sugars that can increase Blautia levels in the gut, showed improvements in their compulsive-eating behavior. Administering a specific Blautia strain to the animals resulted in similar improvements in food addiction.
Conclusions
The findings may help to identify new biomarkers for food addiction and assess whether beneficial bacteria could serve as potential new treatments for compulsive eating.
Compulsive eating is a behavior characterized by an uncontrollable urge to consume food, often in large quantities, and is often linked to emotional or psychological conditions such as stress, anxiety and depression. Now, researchers have found that specific bacteria in the gut are associated with overeating in both mice and people.
The findings, published in Gut, may help to identify new biomarkers for food addiction and assess whether beneficial bacteria could serve as potential new treatments for compulsive eating.
“A number of factors contribute to food addiction, which is characterized by loss of control over food intake and is associated with obesity, other eating disorders and alterations in the composition of bacteria in the gut,” says study co-author Elena Martín-García at Pompeu Fabra Univeristy in Barcelona, Spain. “Until now, the mechanisms underlying this behavioral disorder were largely unknown.”
To start unraveling such mechanisms, Martín-García and her colleagues set out to study the gut bacteria of mice and people who were and were not addicted to food.
Compulsive eating
To diagnose food addiction in mice and humans, the researchers used the Yale Food Addiction Scale, which can help to identify persistent food seeking, high motivation to obtain food and compulsive behavior.
In mice addicted to food, the researchers found an increase in bacteria belonging to the Proteobacteria phylum and a decrease in bacteria belonging to the Actinobacteria phylum. These mice also had a decrease in the levels of Blautia bacteria, which belong to the Bacillota phylum.
Next, the team used the Yale Food Addiction Scale to classify 88 people into those who were addicted or not addicted to food. Similar to the findings in mice, food-addicted individuals showed an increase in Proteobacteria levels and a decrease in the amount of Actinobacteria and Blautia.
Potential treatments
The gut microbiota patterns in both mice and humans suggest that Proteobacteria may have harmful effects, while Actinobacteria and Bacillota could offer protective benefits against developing food addiction.
To investigate the beneficial effects of Blautia, the researchers fed mice lactulose and rhamnose, two non-digestible sugars that can increase Blautia levels in the gut. Mice that received this treatment showed higher amounts of Blautia in their feces and improvements in their compulsive-eating behavior. Administering a specific Blautia strain to the animals resulted in similar improvements in food addiction.
“These results from our study may allow us to identify new biomarkers for food addiction and, most importantly, to evaluate whether the beneficial bacteria could be used as potential new treatments for this obesity-related behavior, which, at present, lacks any effective therapeutic approaches,” says study co-author Rafael Maldonado. “Potential new treatments could involve using beneficial bacteria and dietary supplementation.”
