There’s nothing wrong with eating a second helping…

Unless, of course, you’re already full. And you’re not really sure why you’re eating the second helping. And when you’ve finished, you feel bloated and immobile and sleepy. And you fall asleep shortly after finishing, forcing your body to digest your meal in your sleep, which forces your digestive system to work twice as hard and impedes the quality of sleep you’re getting.

In the ever-evolving field of gut health research, scientists are asking the question: Is overeating less of a personal choice and more of a chemical response in the body?

In other words, can eating for pleasure, instead of eating to stave hunger, actually be traced to bacteria in the gut’s microbiome?