Sugar and Bowel Disease
Researchers found that it takes only two days of a diet high in sugar to increase susceptibility to inflammatory bowel diseases like colitis in mice. This supports the idea that relatively small changes in diet can trigger disease symptoms. Researchers were surprised that increases susceptibility to colitis could be triggered in such a short period of time by sugar intake.
The cause of the problem proved to be rapid changes in gut bacteria. Since these bacteria can reproduce as rapidly as every 20 minutes it did not take long to change bacterial populations in the digestive tract. A high fiber diet promotes bacteria that produce short chain fatty acids which nourish the digestive tract and produce a healthy immune response. A diet high in sugar and low in fiber promotes the growth of bacteria like E. coli which contribute to inflammation and defective immune responses.
This study showed that one of the consequences of a high sugar diet was to dramatically increase the permeability of the gut lining. This allowed undigested food particles and toxins produced by bacteria to be absorbed into the blood stream. The absorption of incompletely digested foods leads to food intolerances and may contributed to autoimmune conditions.
Tissue damage to the digestive tract was decreased by supplementation with short chain fatty acids produced by beneficial bacteria. This suggests that the damage caused to the gut by bacteria might be reduced by supplementation with short chain fatty acids, consumption of beneficial fibers with sugar intake, and/or supplementation with beneficial bacteria when consuming foods high in sugar.
This study appears to put to rest the notion that one can eat a healthy diet during the week and binge on sugars on the weekend without suffering negative consequences.
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