MICROBIOME AND MENTAL ILLNESS: THE BLISS POINT OF CAPITALISM, ENGINEERED FOOD, AND PERMANENT FRUSTRATION

THE MENTAL FORECAST

Liviu Poenaru & Dr Stefania Ubaldi 

May 2026

A mental forecast for contemporary capitalism begins with a contradiction: the system produces bliss points while also producing permanent frustration. The bliss point, in the context of engineered food, refers to the optimized sensory zone where sugar, salt, fat, texture, aroma, and ease of consumption are calibrated to maximize pleasure and repeat consumption. In this sense, engineered food is not simply food; it is a technology of desire. It transforms hunger into craving and aligns the body’s momentary pleasure with the market’s need for repetition and profit. This logic is visible in the development of hyper-palatable foods and ultra-processed products, which are designed to be consumed easily, quickly, and repeatedly (Rao et al., 2018; Fazzino et al., 2019; Hall et al., 2019). Thus, the conditions are created for mental illness to develop, which in turn fuels even more consumption.

Yet the bliss point produces its opposite: permanent frustration. Engineered food can give intense pleasure without durable satisfaction, calories without deep nourishment, fullness without metabolic balance, and taste without microbial diversity. The subject is stimulated but not restored. The subject is stimulated but not restored. This is why the capitalist bliss point is unstable, dangerous, and potentially degenerative: it must be repeated endlessly. The consumer returns to the product not because the need has been resolved, but because the need has been reorganized into a loop of stimulation, relief, and renewed lack. In this sense, capitalism does not merely feed the body; it captures the instinct to eat and turns it into a profitable cycle of dissatisfaction. Indeed, our lives have been organized into a loop of stimulation detached from our original biological regulation. As a result, our vital instincts have been disrupted.

The microbiome makes this argument biologically concrete. Food is not only fuel; it is information for the gut, the immune system, the endocrine system, the vagus nerve, and the brain. Research on the microbiota–gut–brain axis suggests that gut microbes may influence mental health through immune signaling, neuroinflammation, short-chain fatty acids, tryptophan metabolism, neurotransmitter precursors, and vagal communication (Ataei et al., 2026; Zhu et al., 2025). When the food environment is dominated by ultra-processed, hyper-palatable, low-fiber, high-sugar, high-fat, and high-salt products, it may contribute to dysbiosis, intestinal barrier disruption, low-grade inflammation, and altered gut–brain communication. The psychiatric question then becomes not only “what is wrong in the brain?” but also “what kind of world is entering the body and being translated into mood, fatigue, anxiety, inflammation, and distress?”

This is especially important in relation to intestinal permeability. Wasiak and Gawlik-Kotelnicka (2023) review evidence suggesting that increased intestinal permeability may be present in several psychiatric conditions, including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, alcohol dependence, and neurodevelopmental disorders. If the gut barrier becomes more permeable, bacterial products such as LPS may enter circulation and contribute to chronic low-grade inflammation. This inflammation may then affect the brain through the blood–brain barrier, astrocytes, microglia, dopaminergic systems, tryptophan metabolism, GABA, and glutamate. The possible chain is therefore: engineered food → dysbiosis → intestinal permeability → inflammation → altered gut–brain signaling → increased vulnerability to depression, anxiety, irritability, cognitive fog, and emotional instability.

The final forecast is that future mental suffering will increasingly appear as a disorder of reward without regulation. Capitalism offers excess stimulation, excess food, excess screens, excess work pressure, and excess consumption, while depriving many bodies of sleep, slowness, fiber, silence, clean air, stable rhythms, and social belonging. The production of bliss points through engineered food is therefore part of a wider system that converts vital instincts into markets: eating, sleeping, breathing, desiring, resting, and connecting. Thus, capitalism, and more recently cybercapitalism, manufactures environments of continuous stimulation that repeatedly dysregulate the body; in turn, the dysregulated body becomes more vulnerable to mental suffering (WHO, 2014; Dun-Campbell et al., 2024; Lane et al., 2024).

REFERENCES

Ataei, P., Kalantari, H., Bodnar, T. S., & Turner, R. J. (2026). The gut–brain connection: microbes’ influence on mental health and psychological disorders. Frontiers in Microbiomes. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiomes/articles/10.3389/frmbi.2025.1701608/full

Zhu, Z., Cheng, Y., Liu, X., Xu, X., Ding, W., Ling, Z., Liu, J., & Cai, G. (2025). The microbiota-gut-brain axis in depression: unraveling the relationships and therapeutic opportunities. Frontiers in Immunology, 16, 1644160. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2025.1644160/full

Wasiak, J., & Gawlik-Kotelnicka, O. (2023). Intestinal permeability and its significance in psychiatric disorders — A narrative review and future perspectives. Behavioural Brain Research, 448, 114459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114459

Rao, P., Rodriguez, R. L., & Shoemaker, S. P. (2018). Addressing the sugar, salt, and fat issue the science of food way. npj Science of Food, 2, 12. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-018-0020-x

Fazzino, T. L., Rohde, K., & Sullivan, D. K. (2019). Hyper-palatable foods: Development of a quantitative definition and application to the US Food System Database. Obesity, 27(11), 1761–1768. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31689013/

Hall, K. D., Ayuketah, A., Brychta, R., et al. (2019). Ultra-processed diets cause excess calorie intake and weight gain: An inpatient randomized controlled trial of ad libitum food intake. Cell Metabolism, 30(1), 67–77.e3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31105044/

Lane, M. M., Gamage, E., Du, S., et al. (2024). Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses. BMJ, 384, e077310. https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2023-077310

Dun-Campbell, K., Hartwell, G., Maani, N., Tompson, A., van Schalkwyk, M. C. I., & Petticrew, M. (2024). Commercial determinants of mental ill health: An umbrella review. PLOS Global Public Health, 4(8), e0003605. https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0003605

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