Diet high in sugar may adversely affect gut health and increase risk of colitis

Sugary food may be irresistible for the palate, but it can pose more threat to health than merely raising blood sugar levels. Recent research found that a diet that is high in sugar is bad for intestinal or gut health.

A study published this week in Science Translational Medicine found that a diet that is high in sugar increases one’s risk of developing colitis, which is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Researchers from the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas studied the outcome of dietary sugars in mice for a week and came to the aforementioned conclusion.

The researchers fed mice with a solution that contains 10 concentration of dietary sugars, which include fructose, glucose, and sucrose. They found that mice who were first given sugar developed severe symptoms. This was observed in mice that were either genetically predisposed to develop colitis, or in those that were given a chemical that induces the disease.