The vagus nerve sends internal sensory information from the gut to the brain about the nutritional value of food. But, the molecular basis of the reward in the brain associated with what we eat has been incompletely understood.
Now, a new study published in Cell Metabolism by a team from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, unravels the internal neural wiring, revealing separate fat and sugar craving pathways, as well as a concerning result: Combining these pathways overly triggers our desire to eat more than usual.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413123004667?via%3Dihub (open access)
I’ve been telling people this for years based on (admittedly anecdotal) evidence I have collected by strictly controlling my neurodivergent daughter’s diet. I observed the behavioral effects while also charting the quality of stool samples. I consistently found a direct correlation between a good diet free of pesticides, the texture/quality of her stool, and the behavioral effects that followed them 1:1.
At this point, I well understand what she can and cannot eat. Sticking to her diet has MASSIVELY positive effects on all aspects of her more challenging neurodivergent behaviors. Furthermore, I found the same correlation at school: her teachers would send reports of massive improvement in attention span and the elimination of self injurious behaviors whenever we strictly stick to the diet and they also raise the alarm in the opposite direction when we don’t.
An episode of the podcast “Ologies” was what first taught me about the bidirectional communication between brain and vagus nerve in the gut.