Can Gut Bacteria Manipulate Eating Behavior?

Based on their review of recent scientific literature, researchers found that gut microbes could manipulate our eating behaviors through several mechanisms, including:

• Releasing toxins in the absence of nutrients and manipulating host behaviors through pain signaling.
• Altering host's taste receptors and influencing food preferences.
• Producing neurochemicals, which interfere with vagus nerve activity.
• Producing analogs of mammalian hormones which involved in mood and behavior.
• Direct manipulation of intestinal cells.
• http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/articles/diabetes-news/16935-can-gut-bacteria-manipulate-eating-behavior