In the Vox podcast In a Nutshell, hosts Jara Majerus and Antonia Leise take a deep dive into the university's most interesting, strange, and exciting research. Every two weeks, they invite Radboud researchers to talk about their favourite topics – explained in bite-sized episodes. In today's episode, Jara talks with Esther Aarts about the power of the gut – and answers the question whether we really are what we eat.

Why are candy bars so tempting? What makes the microbes in our gut so important? And are we really what we eat?

The ninth episode of In a Nutshell is all about the link between our brains and food choices. This week’s guest, Esther, will tell us how our brains, immune systems, and guts are connected.

Esther Aarts is a Principal Investigator at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour of the Food and Cognition group and a professor of Nutritional Neuroscience. She examines how our brain impacts our eating behavior and how the food we consume impacts our brain and vividly explains her findings to her audience.

Do you want to know more about the link between food and our brains? Follow Esther’s tip and read The Psychobiotic Revolution by Scott Anderson.