“Therefore, we investigated the protective effects of oral administration of lactulose and rhamnose, which are non-digestible carbohydrates known as ‘prebiotics’ that can increase the amount of Blautia in the gut.

“We did this in mice and found that it led to an increase in the abundance of Blautia in mice feces—in parallel with dramatic improvements in food addiction.

“We saw similar improvements when we gave the mice a species of Blautia called Blautia wexlerae orally as a probiotic.