You are what you eat, they say. But it's not just your body that gets affected.
Research discovered that residing in an underprivileged neighborhood can influence the foods you choose, your weight gain, and even the microstructure of your brain.
Let's find out more about how it works.
New research on how environment shapes your food choices
In this experiment, specialists looked at how living in a tough neighborhood changes specific parts of the brain.
They discovered that in these areas with problems like low income, low education, and crowded living conditions, individuals tend to eat low-quality foods, high in unhealthy fats, and don't get enough physical activity.
These factors can mess with how the brain processes information related to rewards, emotions, and thinking.
How it was tested
The experiment included 92 people from the LA area, and they looked at how the neighborhood's disadvantage level (called ADI) was linked to brain structure.
They used MRI scans to understand what was happening in different parts of the brain.
The test results showed that worse ADI ratings were connected to changes in brain areas important for social interaction.
There were also changes in regions linked to reward, emotion control, and thinking, and these changes seemed to be linked to eating trans-fatty acids found in fried fast food.
Conclusion
In simpler terms, living in a tough neighborhood can affect the way your brain works, making it harder to make healthy choices.
This study highlights the importance of improving the food quality in disadvantaged areas to protect brain health.
