Short answer: Yes.
Long answer:
Rationale. Since the microbiome is associated to a host of various different organism that influence or biology in sometimes very crazy ways, one cannot dismiss this possible association. Since appetite is a brain (CNS) thing, and since there are enough evidence to portray a rather causal link between our gut, microbiome and brain – so there’s enough room for that.
Possible mechanisms that I bet on: The link to BDNF and anxiety and food seeking behaviour , the link to insulin/glucose metabolism , SCFA production and PYY (anorexigenic hormone) ketone-bodies production , hunger (orexigenic) hormones
Evidence:
This interesting study explored the association with bariatric surgery (when they mess with you stomach and cause you to eat less), weight loss, appetite and microbiome. Then this came: “Noticeably, Enterococcus showed a broad spectrum of associations including direct correlations with BMI (log2FC= 0.13, q=0.044), body fat mass (log2FC= 0.094, q=0.034) and hunger levels (log2FC= 0.17, q=3E-05).”So, possible link. Nice.
This review (yeah, not clearly evidence) stating: “The nutritive and non-nutritive components of breastmilk, formula and solid foods and the practices surrounding feeding shape the infant metabolome, programming growth rates and body composition, altering metabolism and physiology, promoting differential microfloral colonization, and shaping behavioral responses to foods and eating.”
Clinical trial, prebiotic supplementation. It kinda worked. “We show that the prebiotic treatment increased breath-hydrogen excretion (a marker of gut microbiota fermentation) by ≈3-fold and lowered hunger rates. Prebiotics increased plasma glucagon-like peptide 1 and peptide YY concentrations, whereas postprandial plasma glucose responses decreased after the standardized meal. The areas under the curve for plasma glucagon-like peptide 1 and breath-hydrogen excretion measured after the meal (0–60 min) were significantly correlated (r = 0.85, P = 0.007). The glucose response was inversely correlated with the breath-hydrogen excretion areas under the curve (0–180 min; r = −0.73, P = 0.02).”
From the last citation.
So, As above stated so calmly and easily –
Yes. It can.
It’s just that we don’t know how to do that more prominently and it’s a great question on “how much important is it since hunger is so damn complicated”. So perhaps it’s not THE answer, but it is a PART of an answer.
So what can someone do?
Eat fruits, vegetables, legumes, and love your microbiome.
That’s it.
Good luck.
