A study by Technion’s scientists – Israel Institute of Technology has shown that white sugar has fun effects on your body, at a level that has not been suspected so far. This refined sugar does not only eat your intestinal bacteria, it also changes their operation. The team of scientists discovered that their consumption could cause alterations of bacterial DNA, causing potentially dangerous effects for our immune system and our digestive health.
The researchers found that refined sugar had an astonishing effect on a very precious species of intestinal bacteria, the thetaiotaomicron bacteroides. More specifically, it causes DNA reversal, during which parts of the genetic code change meaning. This mutation is not permanent and is more similar to a temporary “change of costume” which allows the bacteria to modify the genes it activates or not. These genes modify the appearance of the bacteria and disrupt its beneficial intestinal functions, according to an article in the New Atlas media.
This type of variation is usually observed in pathogenic bacteria like Salmonella or E. coli, which use it to blur the tracks and escape the immune system or antibiotics. What surprises here is the triggering of this mechanism in a normally beneficial bacteria. In other words: refined sugar returns against you part of your intestinal microbiota.
Double intestinal agents
Researchers discovered that consumption of sodas, often saturated with sugars of this kind, could be the cause of this inversion of bacterial DNA. This change, observed for the first time in humans, is accompanied by an abnormal immune response, with an increase in inflammatory markers such as cytokines.
Bacteria resume their normal appearance when the effects of sugar dissipate, but too strong exposure could amplify this effect and cause more serious intestinal problems as well as chronic inflammation.
Even if the study does not in itself demonstrate that sugar constitutes a major threat to our intestinal health, it emphasizes that in a certain dose, it can lead to beneficial bacteria to adopt a behavior similar to that of a pathogen. A discovery that will open the way to new research on the long -term effects of this DNA inversion mechanism.
Researchers could consider in the future the development of probiotics effective enough to stop this process, and refine food recommendations for people with intestinal disorders, potentially aggravated by this transformed bacteria.
