A perspective on food addiction through gut microbiota
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51982/bagimli.1434199Keywords:
Food addiction, microbiota, eating behaviorAbstract
Eating behavior is characterized by the balance between homeostatic and hedonic regulatory mechanisms and is highly influenced by environmental signals. Eating behavior depends on internal and external factors such as genetics, taste of food, and environment. The gut microbiota is an important environmental contributor to host physiology and influences feeding behavior. Additionally, the gut microbiota performs numerous functions in the body: Appetite and satiety control, production of neurotransmitters and other metabolites. Although there is still an ongoing debate about the concept of food addiction, studies agree that patients with food addiction behavior exhibit symptoms similar to those experienced by drug addicts, affecting central areas involved in the control of motivated behavior. Little work has been done to answer how the microbiota may influence behaviors associated with “food addiction.” Although research to date has not yet been completed, a growing body of evidence demonstrates how microbiota dysbiosis plays a role in the development of food addiction. Early-life influences may prime the infant's gut microbiota and brain for food addiction; this may be further reinforced by increased antibiotic use and dietary habits throughout adulthood. The ubiquity and marketing of cheap, highly palatable, and energy-dense foods may shift this balance toward hedonic eating through both central (perturbations in dopaminergic signaling) and gut-related mechanisms (vagal afferent function, metabolic endotoxemia, changes in gut microbiota). In recent studies, the relationship between food addiction and intestinal microbiota attracts attention. In this context, this review aims to examine the mechanisms between intestinal microbiota and food addiction.
References
Yeo GSH, Heisler L. Unraveling the brain regulation of appetite: Lessons from genetics. Nat Neurosci 2012; 15(10): 1343–1349. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3211
Higgs S. Cognitive processing of food rewards. Appetite 2016; 104: 10–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.10.003
Novelle MG, Diéguez C. Food Addiction and binge eating: Lessons learned from animal models. Nutrients 2018; 10: 71. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10010071
Cryan JF, O’Riordan KJ, Cowan CSM, et al. The microbiota-gut-brain axis. Physiol Rev 2019; 99(4): 1877–2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00018.2018
Cussotto S, Sandhu KV, Dinan TG, Cryan JF. The neuroendocrinology of the microbiota-gut-brain axis: a behavioural perspective. Front Neuroendocr 2018; 51: 80–101. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.04.002
Morais LH, Schreiber HLT, Mazmanian SK. The gut microbiota-brain axis in behaviour and brain disorders. Nat Rev Microbiol 2020; 19: 241–255. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-020-00460-0
Chahwan B, Kwan S, Isik A, et al. Gut feelings: a randomised, triple-blind, placebo-controlled trial of probiotics for depressive symptoms. J Affect Disord 2019; 253: 317–26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.04.097
Bloemendaal M, Szopinska-Tokov J, Belzer C, et al. Probiotics-induced changes in gut microbial composition and its effects on cognitive performance after stress: exploratory analyses. Transl Psychiatry 2021; 11: 300. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01404-9
Novelle MG, Diéguez C. Unravelling the role and mechanism of adipokine and gastrointestinal signals in animal models in the nonhomeostatic control of energy homeostasis: Implications for binge eating disorder. Eur Eat Disord Rev 2018; 26: 551–568. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.2641
Petrovich GD. Lateral hypothalamus as a motivation-cognition interface in the control of feeding behavior. Front Syst Neurosci 2018; 12: 14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2018.00014
Novelle MG. Decoding the role of gut-microbiome in the food addiction paradigm. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021;18(13): 6825. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136825
Şanlier N, Türközü D, Toka O. Body image, food addiction, depression, and body mass index in university students. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 2016; 55(6): 491-507. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2016.1219951
Ahmed AY, Sayed AM, Mostafa KM, Abdelaziz EA. Food addiction relations to depression and anxiety in Egyptian adolescents. Egyptian Pediatric Association Gazette 2016; 64(4): 149-153. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epag.2016.09.002
Najem J, Saber M, Aoun C, et al. Prevalence of food addiction and association with stress, sleep quality and chronotype: A cross-sectional survey among university students. Clin Nutr 2020; 39(2): 533-539. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2019.02.038
Eblum K, Thanos PK, Gold MS. Dopamine and glucose, obesity, and reward deficiency syndrome. Front Psychol 2014; 5: 919. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00919
Volkow ND, Koob GF, McLellan AT. Neurobiologic advances from the brain disease model of addiction. N Engl J Med 2016; 374(4): 363–371. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1511480
Hauck C, Cook B, Ellrott T. Food addiction, eating addiction and eating disorders. Proc Nutr Soc 2020; 79: 103– 112. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665119001162
Hebebrand J, Albayrak Ö, Adan R, et al. “Eating addiction”, rather than “food addiction”, better captures addictive-like eating behavior. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2014; 47: 295–306. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.08.016
Schulte EM, Avena NM, Gearhardt AN. Which foods may be addictive? The roles of processing, fat content, and glycemic load. PLoS One 2015; 10: e0117959. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117959
Sarkar S, Kochhar KP, Khan NA. Fat addiction: psyhological and physiological trajectory. Nutrients 2019; 11: 2785. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11112785
Ruddock HK, Christiansen P, Halford JCG, Hardman CA. The development and validation of the Addiction-like Eating Behaviour Scale. Int J Obes 2017; 41: 1710–1717. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.158
Ziauddeen H, Fletcher PC. Is food addiction a valid and useful concept? Obes Rev 2012; 14: 19–28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-789X.2012.01046.x
Finlayson G. Food addiction and obesity: unnecessary medicalization of hedonic overeating. Nat Rev Endocrinol 2017; 13: 493–498. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2017.61
Meyyappan AC, Forth E, Wallace CJK, Milev R. Effect of fecal microbiota transplant on symptoms of psychiatric disorders: a systematic review. BMC Psychiatry 2020; 20(1): 299. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02654-5
Rinninella E, Raoul P, Cintoni M, et al. What is the healthy gut microbiota composition? a changing ecosystem across age, environment, diet, and diseases. Microorganisms 2019; 7(1):14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms7010014
Silva YP, Bernardi A, Frozza RL. The role of short-chain fatty acids from gut microbiota in gut-brain communication. Front Endocrinol 2020; 11: 25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2020.00025
Gearhardt AN, Corbin WR, Brownell KD. Preliminary validation of the Yale Food Addiction Scale. Appetite 2009; 52:430–436. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2008.12.003
American Psychiatriatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
Alcock J, Maley C, Aktipis A. Is eating behavior manipulated by the gastrointestinal microbiota? Evolutionary pressures and potential mechanisms. Bio Essays 2014; 36(10): 940-949. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.201400071
Beilharz JE, Kaakoush NO, Maniam J, Morris MJ. Cafeteria diet and probiotic therapy: cross talk among memory, neuroplasticity, serotonin receptors and gut microbiota in the rat. Mol Psychiatry 2018; 23(2): 351–536. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2017.38
Araujo JR, Tomas J, Brenner C, Sansonetti PJ. Impact of high-fat diet on the intestinal microbiota and small intestinal physiology before and after the onset of obesity. Biochimie 2017; 141: 97–106. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biochi.2017.05.019
Cani PD, Neyrinck AM, Fava F, et al. Selective increases of bifidobacteria in gut microflora improve high-fat-diet-induced diabetes in mice through a mechanism associated with endotoxaemia. Diabetologia 2007; 50(11): 2374– 2383. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-007-0791-0
Beilharz JE, Kaakoush NO, Maniam J, Morris MJ. The effect of short-term exposure to energy-matched diets enriched in fat or sugar on memory, gut microbiota and markers of brain inflammation and plasticity. Brain Behav Immun 2016; 57: 304–313. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2016.07.151
David LA, Maurice CF, Carmody RN, et al. Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome. Nature 2014; 505: 559–563. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12820
Chiva-Blanch G, Badimon L, Estruch R. Latest evidence of the effects of the Mediterranean diet in prevention of cardiovascular disease. Curr Atheroscler Rep 2014; 16: 446. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11883-014-0446-9
Bersani FS, Biondi M, Coviello M, et al. Psychoeducational intervention focused on healthy living improves psychopathological severity and lifestyle quality in psychiatric patients: preliminary findings from a controlled study. J Ment Health 2017; 26(3): 271–275. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2017.1294741
Opie RS, O’Neil A, Jacka FN, et al. A modified Mediterranean dietary intervention for adults with major depression: dietary protocol and feasibility data from the SMILES trial. Nutr Neurosci 2018; 21(7): 487-501. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1028415X.2017.1312841
Braniste V, Al-Asmakh M, Kowal C, et al. The gut microbiota influences blood-brain barrier permeability in mice. Sci Transl Med 2014; 6(263): 263ra158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.3009759
Raybould H. Gut chemosensing: interactions between gut endocrine cells and visceral afferents. Auton Neurosci-Basic 2010; 153(12): 41-46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autneu.2009.07.007
Lam Y, Maguire S, Palacios T. Are the gut bacteria telling us to eat or not to eat? Reviewing the role of gut microbiota in the etiology, disease progression and treatment of eating disorders. Nutrients 2017; 9: 602. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9060602
Patterson E, Ryan PM, Wiley N, et al. Gamma-aminobutyric acid-producing lactobacilli positively affect metabolism and depressive-like behaviour in a mouse model of metabolic syndrome. Sci Rep 2019; 9: 16323. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51781-x
Busnelli M, Manzini S, Chiesa G. The gut microbiota affects host pathophysiology as an endocrine organ: A focus on cardiovascular disease. Nutrients 2019; 12: 79. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12010079
Chung WS, Walker AW, Louis P. Modulation of the human gut microbiota by dietary fibres occurs at the species level. BMC Biol 2016; 14: 3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-015-0224-3
Fetissov SO. Role of the gut microbiota in host appetite control: Bacterial growth to animal feeding behaviour. Nat Rev Endocrinol 2017; 13: 11–25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2016.150
Gupta A, Osadchiy V, Mayer EA. Brain–gut–microbiome interactions in obesity and food addiction. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 2020; 17(11): 655-672. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-020-0341-5
Gonzalez-Santana A, Heijtz RD. Bacterial Peptidoglycans from Microbiota in Neurodevelopment and Behavior. Trends Mol Med 2020; 26: 729–743. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmed.2020.05.003
Cohen LJ, Cho JH, Gevers D, Chu H. Genetic factors and the intestinal microbiome guide development of microbebased therapies for inflammatory bowel diseases. Gastroenterology 2019; 156(8): 2174–2189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2019.03.017
Cuevas-Sierra A, Ramos-Lopez O, Riezu-Boj JI, et al. Diet, gut microbiota, and obesity: Links with host genetics and epigenetics and potential applications. Adv Nutr 2019; 10 (Suppl 1): S17–S30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmy078
Dong TS, Mayer EA, Osadchiy V, et al. A distinct brain-gut-microbiome profile exists for females with obesity and food addiction. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2020; 28(8): 1477–1486. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22870
Molle RD, Bischoff AR, Portella AK, Silveira PP. The fetal programming of food preferences: Current clinical and experimental evidence. J Dev Orig Health Dis 2016; 7(3): 222–230. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S2040174415007187
Mirpuri J. Evidence for maternal diet-mediated effects on the offspring microbiome and immunity: Implications for public health initiatives. Pediatr Res 2021; 89(2): 301–306. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-020-01121-x
Lundgren SN, Madan JC, Emond JA, et al. Maternal diet during pregnancy is related with the infant stool microbiome in a delivery mode-dependent manner. Microbiome 2018; 6: 109. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-018-0490-8
Bhagavata Srinivasan SP, Raipuria M, Bahari H, et al. Impacts of diet and exercise on maternal gut microbiota are transferred to offspring. Front Endocrinol 2018; 9: 716. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2018.00716
Yao Y, Cai X, Chen C, et al. The role of microbiomes in pregnant women and offspring: research progress of recent years. Front Pharmacol 2020; 11: 643. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.00643
Al Rubaye H, Adamson CC, Jadavji NM. The role of maternal diet on offspring gut microbiota development: a review. J Neurosci Res 2021; 99: 284–293. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.24605
Jašarevi´c E, Howard CD, Morrison K, et al. The maternal vaginal microbiome partially mediates the effects of prenatal stress on offspring gut and hypothalamus. Nat Neurosci 2018; 21: 1061–1071. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0182-5
Gabbianelli R, Bordoni L, Morano S, et al. Nutri-epigenetics and gut microbiota: how birth care, bonding and breastfeeding can influence and be influenced? Int J Mol Sci 2020; 21: 5032. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21145032
Liu Z, Neuringer M, Erdman JW Jr, et al. The effects of breastfeeding versus formula-feeding on cerebral cortex maturation in infant rhesus macaques. Neuro Image 2019; 184: 372–385. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.09.015
Roger LC, Costabile A, Holland DT, et al. Examination of faecal Bifidobacterium populations in breast- and formula-fed infants during the first 18 months of life. Microbiology (Reading) 2010; 156(Pt 11): 3329–3341. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.043224-0
O’Sullivan A, Farver M, Smilowitz JT. The influence of early infant-feeding practices on the intestinal microbiome and body composition in infants. Nutr Metab Insights 2015; 8(Suppl 1): 1–9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4137/NMI.S29530
Schwartz C, Scholtens PA, Lalanne A, et al. Development of healthy eating habits early in life. Review of recent evidence and selected guidelines. Appetite 2011; 57(3):796-807. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2011.05.316
Forestell CA. Flavor perception and preference development in human infants. Ann Nutr Metab 2017; 70(3): 17– 25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1159/000478759
De Palma G, Blennerhassett P, Lu J, et al. Microbiota and host determinants of behavioural phenotype in maternally separated mice. Nat Commun 2015; 6: 7735. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8735
Hoban AE, Stilling RM, Ryan F, et al. Regulation of prefrontal cortex myelination by the microbiota. Transl Psychiatry 2016; 6: e774. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/tp.2016.42
Sonnenburg ED, Smits SA, Tikhonov M, et al. Diet-induced extinctions in the gut microbiota compound over generations. Nature 2016; 529(7585): 212–215. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16504
Teasdale SB, Burrows TL, Hayes T, et al. Dietary intake, food addiction and nutrition knowledge in young people with mental illness. Nutr Diet 2020; 77: 315–322. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1747-0080.12550
Ayton A, Ibrahim A, Dugan J, et al. Ultra-processed foods and binge eating: A retrospective observational study. Nutrition 2021; 84: 111023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2020.111023
López-Taboada I, González-Pardo H, Conejo NM. Western diet: implications for brain function and behavior. Front Psychol 2020; 11: 564413. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.564413
Monteiro CA, Moubarac JC, Levy RB, et al. Household availability of ultra-processed foods and obesity in nineteen European countries. Public Health Nutr 2018; 21(1): 18–26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980017001379
Hall KD. Did the food environment cause the obesity epidemic? Obesity 2018; 26(1): 11–13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22073
Nunes-Neto PR, Köhler CA, Schuch FB, et al. Food addiction: prevalence, psychopathological correlates and associations with quality of life in a large sample. J Psychiatr Res 2018; 96: 145–152. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.10.003
Grochowska M, Laskus T, Radkowski M. Gut microbiota in neurological disorders. Arch Immunol Ther Exp 2019; 67: 375–383. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00005-019-00561-6
Larraufie P, Dore J, Lapaque N, Blottiere HM. TLR ligands and butyrate increase Pyy expression through two distinct but inter-regulated pathways. Cell Microbiol 2017; 19: e12648. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/cmi.12648
Vandeputte D, Kathagen G, D’hoe K, Vieira-Silva S, et al. Quantitative microbiome profiling links gut community variation to microbial load. Nature 2017;551(7681):507–511. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24460
Chambers ES, Viardot A, Psichas A, Morrison DJ, et al. Effects of targeted delivery of propionate to the human colon on appetite regulation, body weight maintenance and adiposity in overweight adults. Gut 2015; 64(11): 1744-1754. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2014-307913
Arora T, Loo RL, Anastasovska J, Gibson GR, et al. Differential effects of two fermentable carbohydrates on central appetite regulation and body composition. PLoS One 2012; 7(8): e43263. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043263
Queipo-Ortuño MI, Seoane LM, Murri M, et al. Gut microbiota composition in male rat models under different nutritional status and physical activity and its association with serum leptin and ghrelin levels. PloS One 2013; 8(5): e65465. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065465
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Dependence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Journal and content of this website is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access. The Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) allows users to copy, distribute and transmit unmodified article, and make noncommercial use of the article. The CC BY license permits non-commercial re-use of an open access article, as long as the author is properly attributed.
