Early junk food rewires appetite

A Nature Communications mouse study finds that feeding juveniles a high‑fat, high‑sugar diet causes lasting changes in the hypothalamus and adult food preferences even after weight normalizes. Introducing the probiotic Bifidobacterium longum or dietary prebiotics (FOS, GOS) partly restored normal eating behavior, suggesting the gut microbiome mediates the effect. — If the mechanism translates to humans, early childhood nutrition and microbiome interventions become a lever for lifelong eating behavior and public‑health policy.