Bacteria In The Food You Ate Today Changed Your Brain Function

As you go about your daily life, various areas of your brain communicate with each other, influencing your perceptions and emotions. But you have microscopic friends that shape how these connections are made: the bacteria in your food.

Researchers at UCLA have produced evidence that the bacteria in food affect brain function. They found that women who regularly consume beneficial bacteria (probiotics) in yogurt have altered brain activity.

“Many of us have a container of yogurt in our refrigerator that we may eat for enjoyment, for calcium or because we think it might help our health in other ways,” says researcher Kirsten Tillisch. “Our findings indicate that some of the contents of yogurt may actually change the way our brain responds to the environment. When we consider the implications of this work, the old sayings ‘you are what you eat’ and ‘gut feelings’ take on new meaning.”

By demonstrating how probiotics can affect the brain, the study also raises the question of what happens when we take antibiotics. Antibiotics are used extensively in neonatal intensive care units and in childhood respiratory tract infections, and such suppression of the normal microbiota may have long-term consequences on brain development.