Native-born Americans who live in Los Angeles County neighborhoods with a higher proportion of immigrants tend to eat less fast food and more fruits and vegetables than those who live in local neighborhoods with a lower proportion of immigrants, new research finds. They also have lower body mass indices and rates of hypertension.

The study, forthcoming in Preventive Medicine, builds on scholarship on what researchers call the “healthy immigrant effect,” a term used to describe the tendency for US immigrants to have better health than native-born peers of comparable socioeconomic status.

Other research finds that native-born Americans who live in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of immigrants tend to live longer.

What if these effects stem from a neighborhood’s food options? That’s what the authors of this forthcoming paper explore.