Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an umbrella term for two chronic inflammatory conditions that affect the digestive tract – ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Symptoms of IBD include diarrhea, rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, fatigue, and weight loss. Evidence indicates that dysbiosis, an imbalance in the types and numbers of microbes in the gut, contributes to the pathogenesis of IBD. And now, findings from a recent study suggest that eating a high-sugar diet promotes dysbiosis and the development of IBD.

The study involved normal mice and mice that are genetically predisposed to develop colitis. The authors of the study gave a subset of both groups of mice a 10 percent glucose solution (comparable to a sugar-sweetened soft drink) for one week. They gave the normal mice a chemical that causes colitis. Then they measured the inflammatory responses, disease severity, and gut microbial composition in both groups of mice and compared them to mice that did not receive the sugar solution.

They found that, prior to the mice developing colitis, the sugar did not trigger gut inflammation. However, both groups of mice developed worse symptoms of colitis after drinking the glucose solution. In addition, both groups exhibited higher numbers of bacteria that break down the mucus layer of the gut (specifically, Akkermansia muciniphila and Bacteroides fragilis), contributing to mucus layer destruction, increasing gut permeability. The number of beneficial bacteria in the animals' guts decreased, however.

• Learn more about the harmful effects of sugar in this podcast featuring Dr. Rhonda Patrick.
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