When sodas harm your microbiota and your health
Can sodas and other sugary drinks alter our intestinal flora and, as a result, increase our risk of diabetes? This is what researchers 1 found when they studied the gut microbiota of Hispanic and Latino Americans.
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About this article
Sodas and other sugary drinks are a major target of public health policies. The harmful effects associated with consuming too many of them include
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Diabetes mellitus
Chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Over time, diabetes can damage blood vessels in the heart, eyes, kidneys and nerves.
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, more specifically type 2 diabetes. How does this happen? Undoubtedly through weight gain,
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Insulin-resistance
An altered response of cells to the action of insulin (a hormone that helps the body use sugar for energy), insulin resistance results in poor regulation of blood sugar levels.
Sources
Inserm. La résistance à l’insuline, une histoire de communication. 2018.
Centers for disease control and prevention. Diabetes - Resources and Publications -Glossary
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, inflammation and dyslipidemia. But research carried out on Hispanic and Latino Americans shows that our gut microbiota also plays a role.
422 million The number of people living with diabetes has been rising, from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. The disease was directly responsible for 1.5 million deaths in 2012 alone. ²
10,043 diabetes deaths associated with sugar-sweetened beverage intake among U.S. adults in 2012, contributing to 14.8% of diabetes deaths related to suboptimal diets. ¹
More sodas, more bad bacteria
A weakness for sugary drinks (especially if you drink more than 2 glasses a day) has serious consequences for the gut microbiota. In fact, regular consumption of these drinks appears to reduce the number of various bacteria that are considered beneficial because they produce (sidenote: Short chain fatty acids (SCFA) Short chain fatty acids (SCFA) are a source of energy (fuel) for an individual’s cells. They interact with the immune system and are involved in communication between the intestine and the brain. Silva YP, Bernardi A, Frozza RL. The Role of Short-Chain Fatty Acids From Gut Microbiota in Gut-Brain Communication. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2020;11:25. ) (SCFAs), which are known for their protective effects.
For example, Bacteroides pectinophilus, which feeds on pectin but doesn't know what to do with the sugars found in sodas, declines when soda is consumed. However, this isn’t true of all bacteria: those that like to feed on fructose and glucose (two sugars found in high amounts in sugary drinks) multiply like wildfire.
Diabetes-linked bacterial metabolites
As a direct consequence of this bacterial disturbance, our microbiota changes, so it no longer produces the same (sidenote: Metabolites Small molecules produced during cellular or bacterial metabolism. For example, short-chain fatty acids are metabolites produced by intestinal microbiota during fermentation of non-digestible complex carbohydrates (fibers, etc.). Silva YP, Bernardi A, Frozza RL. The Role of Short-Chain Fatty Acids From Gut Microbiota in Gut-Brain Communication. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2020;11:25. Lamichhane S, Sen P, Dickens AM, et al An overview of metabolomics data analysis: current tools and future perspectives. Comprehensive analytical chemistry. 2018 ; 82: 387-413 ) and it impacts our health differently. With sodas, we're no longer getting the good SCFAs that are so beneficial for our bodies! Instead, the molecules produced by the intestinal flora of people who drink a lot of sugary drinks are linked to blood sugar issues and the risk of diabetes. And the more sodas and sugary drinks you consume, the greater the presence of these harmful molecules in your blood, leading to an increased risk of diabetes.
Note: being overweight could play a role in this phenomenon, as extra pounds seem to be part of the link between sugary drinks, metabolites and diabetes.
Increasing sugary drink intake (sugar-sweetened beverages or fruit juices) by 110 ml (half a glass) for 4 years increases the risk of type 2 diabetes by 16% in the following 4 years (compared with people whose consumption remains stable over time). 3
It’s time to cut down on sodas
These findings suggest that the gut microbiota and bacterial metabolites may play a role in the link between drinking sugary drinks and an increased risk of diabetes. Of course, further studies on other populations are still needed to better understand this link. But in the meantime, this study should be seen as yet another reason to drink less sodas! Instead, how about a glass of horchata, which boosts good bacteria?
