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Body conversation

Read the meal as a message between gut and brain

The gut does more than digest. It senses nutrients, releases signals, and sends information through nerves and hormones before the conscious brain catches up.

The route

01Meal sensing
02Hormone release
03Neural feedback

Read the gut-brain series

  1. 01The gut reads every meal and reports back to the brainThe gut doesn't just digest a meal. It reads it. Every bite sends a message that travels through the whole body.
  2. 02One meal lights up four regions of the brainSignals triggered by a meal do not stop in the gut. They reach several brain regions, each reading the same meal for a different purpose.
  3. 03Ninety-five percent of the body's serotonin lives in the gutMost serotonin in the body is produced in the digestive tract. That fact is useful, but it only helps if the reader keeps location and function in view.
  4. 04The gut sends more signals to the brain than it gets backGut-brain communication is not mainly a one-way command system. Most of the traffic moves upward, from the gut toward the brain.