The Impact of Gut Bacteria on Food Cravings

What is a food craving?

A food craving is a strong desire for a particular food. This desire can seem unmanageable and may cause a person to crave normally unhealthy foods.

Food preferences are strongly linked to your brain, especially your mental state. The vagus nerve, which is known as the gut axis, is a two-way communication pathway between the gut and the brain.

The connection is repeatedly implicated in research between diet and disease, including mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.

This relationship begins with what we consume. For a long time, it has been known that what we consume can alter the balance of microbes in our digestive tracts. What we eat can increase particular types of bacteria and diminish others.

As these populations of bacteria modify, they secrete various chemicals into our body or trigger certain genes in the microbes to send commands to the rest of the body, including the brain, through the vagus nerve. At this point, the microbes have control over our mood.

Surprisingly, 50% of dopamine, the reward neurotransmitter and our pleasure, and 90% of serotonin, our happiness and stability neurotransmitter, are made in our gut. (Eisenhofer, et al., 1997) (Kim & Camilleri, 2000).

These are the exact chemicals which are used in powerful anti-anxiety drugs and antidepressants. Besides other functions, these neurotransmitters connect directly to the brain.  

From where cravings arise?

There are two overriding ways bacteria transmit signals to the brain to control our mood and what we eat. Microbes can generate toxins and make us feel miserable if we don’t give them what they need. Besides making us feel bad, these toxins also send messages to the brain to make us think we need that food to survive.

Microbes can elevate our craving for a food they like by altering our taste buds and generating neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin to make us happy when consumed (this goes for harmful and beneficial bacteria)

How gut bacteria controls hunger?

Your body generates various hormones that impact your appetite, including leptin and ghrelin. Different bacteria in the gut can influence how much of these hormones are generated and whether they signal you to feel hungry or full.

Furthermore, short-chain fatty acids are the chemicals produced when particular species of gut bacteria break down fibre, particularly prebiotic fibre. The bacteria ferment the fibre to feed on it, and they make a chemical that helps suppress appetite and help you feel full.

The composition of your gut bacteria primarily influences and regulates our digestive hormones, signalling when we are hungry or full. Feeling full reduces the likelihood of experiencing cravings.

A decrease in the diversity and kinds of bacteria in our gut is related to hunger, and the reverse is also true. A diverse microbiota full of advantageous bacteria is related to satiety.

Food preferences of gut microbiota

Various bacteria prefer various substances. Even though many can live without many substances, they normally prefer one over another. For Example, few bacteria prefer sugar over fat. Others are specialists and can only thrive if they have a particular macronutrient.

All bacteria need a steady stream of their specific substances to thrive and reproduce. They also have their own method of demanding what they need to eat. This is a difference between the two basic techniques mentioned above.

A lower concentration of the nutrients they need to survive can activate a survival mechanism in which the microbe starts to damage the host, making us feel very average.

At other times, the gut microbes secrete proteins that function, such as hunger-regulating hormones. The bacteria in the gut produce cravings for the substances they grow on.

If you have bacteria that grow on sugar, eating large amounts of sugar feeds the bacteria that flourish on it. Then, the bacteria produce more proteins that make you want more sugar so they can keep growing, and it is a continuous cycle.

This is why our eating habits may be hard to change: The microbiota generates cravings for foods they specialise in or those types of foods that permit them to compete for resources against the other bacteria present.

This equates to an increased appetite or craving for sugar, which may be a clear sign that your gut health needs a balance. A diverse, well-fed and balanced microbiota presents a wall of defence against nasty pathogens that attempt to stimulate cravings and intestinal damage.

Summary

It has been typically assumed that we are entirely responsible for our food choices, and if we make unhealthy ones, it is our own mistake. Nevertheless, this belief is not fully accurate.

It is essential for us to comprehend the importance of maintaining a healthy gut microbiota before it leads to illness. This is not only essential for our gut and holistic health but also for our emotional well-being.

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