We formulate the quark meson coupling model as a many-body effective Hamiltonian. This leads naturally to the appearance of many-body forces. We investigate the zero range limit of the model and compare its Hartree-Fock Hamiltonian to that corresponding to the Skyrme effective force. By fixing the three parameters of the model to reproduce the binding and symmetry energy of nuclear matter, we find that it allows a very satisfactory interpretation of the Skyrme force.