Research
Adherence
Gut microbiota manipulate host eating behavior and cravings to enhance microbial fitness, potentially at the expense of host health, through mechanisms including vagus nerve hijacking, neurotransmitter production, and receptor alteration.
Instead of relying solely on willpower to fight cravings, consider that your gut bacteria might be driving them. You can influence your microbiota through diet (prebiotics/probiotics), which may help reduce cravings and improve eating habits over time.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Microbes in the gastrointestinal tract are under selective pressure to manipulate host eating behavior to increase their fitness, sometimes at the expense of host fitness.
Why this rating
The paper is a review/hypothesis paper citing animal studies and observational human data, but lacks large-scale human RCTs proving causality in humans.
Source
Is eating behavior manipulated by the gastrointestinal microbiota? Evolutionary pressures and potential mechanisms
Joe Alcock et al. · BioEssays · 2014
DOI 10.1002/bies.201400071
narrative_reviewCited 453×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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