Gut Bacteria control the amount of food we eat: Research

Many people love to eat but at times, they feel full within few minutes of starting a meal as their brain signals that its time to stop. A new research has found that gut bacteria have an important role to play in the amount of food a person consumes. Gut bacteria release a specific protein which is related to hunger response among humans.

Chemical clues found by researchers indicate that certain bacteria convey the brain when enough food has been eaten and it is the time to push away the food plate.

E. coli bacteria are commonly found in the human gut. It after around 20 minutes of eating food start producing proteins that are connected to a hormone responsible for controlling appetite in the brain.

You would find it hard to believe, but it is true that around 100 trillion bacteria, viruses and fungi are present in a single human body. Most of the microbes present are to help rather than causing any sort of trouble.

Colon has the highest capacity with 70% of the microbes in the body present there. Out of different species of bacteria present in colon, E. coli is one of them and important one. It is found in every healthy gut and has an active role in shaping one’s eating habit.

Microbes reproduce by absorbing the nutrients derived from the food a person eats. Researchers suspected that microbes must be having a role in regulating food intake. To know more on signs about E.coli activity with regard to feeding, the research was carried out.

Study’s co-researcher Sergueï O. Fetissov of Rouen University in France came up with a way to measure a bacterial protein called ClpB, so they could carry out comparative analysis of how much E. coli bacteria were produced before and after being fed.

After 20 minutes of being fed, E. coli bacteria produced the bacterial protein in double the amount when compared to before being fed. Now, the next question whose answer researchers wanted to know was the effect of the release of more bacterial protein on the host body.

In mice and rats, the protein led to decline in food intake. It even enhanced the growth of a hormone called peptide YY or PYY. Fetissov said, “PYY is one of the main hormones released from the gut after a meal, so it signals satiety to the brain”.