The evidence is convergent. Multiple independent sources reach the same conclusion, the underlying mechanism is well-characterized, and even the field's most cautious voices treat it as worth doing.
So the important point here is that we have a fast system that is paying attention to the nutrients in our gut or the absence of nutrients in our gut, and stimulating us to seek out food or to stop eating certain foods, and we have a slower hormone-related system that also originates in the gut and impacts the brain.
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Here I'm talking about a particular type of neuron that is signaling up to the brain using electrical signals to cause us to want to seek out a particular category of foods. That's happening relatively fast compared to the hormone pathways of the gut which also involve neurons. So your gut is also communicating to your brain by way of neurons, nerve cells. But some of those nerve cells also release hormones. And those hormones go by names like CCK, glucagon-like peptide 1, PYY, et cetera.
So the way that the gut and the brain communicate is both chemical and mechanical, and it can be both for sake of increasing certain types of behavior. Today, we're talking mainly about feeding behavior up until now anyway but also ceasing to eat, closing your mouth, moving away from food, turning away from food, all behaviors that we're familiar with anytime we feel kind of sick on the basis of activation of this mechanosensor for gastric distress.
And in addition to that, the Liberly's lab discovered neurons that detect nutrients themselves. These neurons are activated by the presence of fatty acids, amino acids, and as a third food item, sugars are coming from the foods that we eat. These neurons will fire a lot to the brain that says, "Hey, whatever you're doing up there, do more of it."