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I have written multiple times about the gut-brain connection in multiple ways including the impacts of the microbiome on various cognitive, physical, and mental health factors. But this latest research is also a surprise.
When it comes to unhealthy eating many of us would assume it is down to taste and natural biological desire for certain types of foods. But researchers at Columbia University have discovered an entirely new connection — not in the mouth but in the gut.
This comes from research into mice and feeding them with different liquids. Firstly, one that had dissolved fats in it and one another that included sweet substances but that were known not to affect the gut. Under normal circumstances one would assume that both would be drunk in equal quantities but the one with fats was preferred.
When this was then tested on mice that had no sense of taste (genetically modified — yup, weird I know). They also preferred the liquid with dissolved fats in it showing that taste had nothing to do with this desire.
The researchers then searched for the mechanisms by scanning the brains of the mice while or after drinking the fatty liquid. They found an area in the brain that responded to fats with neurons in an area called the caudal nucleus of the solitary tract (cNST) activating…
