Obesity has increased enormously over the past decades. It is a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases, severely reducing quality of life. Different causes can lead to obesity, with food addiction being one of them. Increasing evidence also points to the gut microbiota as an important player in the pathophysiology of obesity and food intake. However, the link between the gut microbiome and food addiction remains largely unexplored. In this study, Castells-Nobau et al. demonstrate that bacteriophages in the gut microbiome contribute to the regulation of food addiction.

Next, the authors explored the relationship between microbial functions and food addiction, which highlighted the microbial metabolism of aromatic amino acids as the most substantial pathway linked to food addiction. In addition, using global plasma metabolic profiling, they observed that Gokushovirus WZ-2015a may influence the metabolism of tryptophan and tyrosine, the precursors of serotonin and dopamine, potentially contributing to food addiction.