Discrimination Alters Brain-Gut 'Crosstalk,' Prompting Poor Food Choices And Increased Health Risks | Univ. Ca. LA

People frequently exposed to racial or ethnic discrimination may be more susceptible to obesity and related health risks in part because of a stress response that changes biological processes and how we process food cues.

These are findings from UCLA researchers conducting what is believed to be the first study directly examining effects of discrimination on responses to different types of food as influenced by the brain-gut-microbiome (BGM) system.

The changes appear to increase activation in regions of the brain associated with reward and self-indulgence—like seeking "feel-good" sensations from "comfort foods"—while decreasing activity in areas involved in decision making and self-control.

"We examined complex relationships between self-reported discrimination exposure and poor food choices, and we can see these processes lead to increased cravings for unhealthy foods, especially sweet foods, but also manifested as alterations in the bidirectional communication between the brain and the gut microbiome," said Arpana Gupta, Ph.D., a researcher and co-director of the UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center and the UCLA G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience.

"Our results show that a person's brain-gut crosstalk may change in response to ongoing experiences of discrimination—affecting food choices, cravings, brain function, and contributing to alterations in gut chemistry that have been implicated in stress and inflammation," said Gupta, senior author of the paper, which appears in Nature Mental Health.

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