FRIDAY, June 28, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Specific types of gut bacteria appear to be linked to compulsive eating, a new study reports. Researchers found that one type of gut bacteria -- the Proteobacteria family -- is abundant in people and mice with an addiction to food. Other types of gut bacteria are decreased in food-addicted people and mice, including Blautia bacteria and bacteria belonging to the Actinobacteria family, researchers say.
What’s more, food addiction decreased in mice when they were fed prebiotics that caused Blautia levels in the gut to rise, said researcher Elena Martin-Garcia , a professor of medicine and life sciences at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. These results suggest the “potential protective effects of increasing the abundance of Actinobacterial and Bacillota against the development of food addiction,” Martin-Garcia said. Blautia belongs to the Bacillota family.
For the study, researchers used a food addiction scale to diagnose the condition in mice and humans. The scale measures persistent food-seeking, motivation to obtain food and compulsive behavior. They found that mice with food addiction had higher levels of Proteobacteria and lower levels of Actinobacteria and Blautia .
Those same trends were seen in 88 humans, researchers said. “The findings in both mice and humans suggested that specific microbiota could be protective in preventing food addiction,” Martin-Garcia said. “In particular, the strong similarities in t.