Will sugar disrupt the balance of intestinal flora, affect immunity and increase the risk of metabolic diseases?

Everyone already knows that a high-sugar, high-fat diet is closely related to metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, but no one expected that intestinal flora and immune cells would also be involved in this love-hate relationship!

Mice fed a high-fat diet and sugar diet had significant changes in their gut microbiota compared to animals fed a normal diet.

Among them, Faecalibaculum rodentium (Frod) was significantly increased in high-fat diet and sugar-fed mice and showed a negative correlation with the level of segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB).

Frod can significantly inhibit the colonization of SFB. If sugar is added to drinking water, it can promote the expansion of Frod and cause a further decrease in SFB levels, thereby leading to a decrease in intestinal Th17 cells.

Analysis of intestinal immune cells found that in the small intestinal lamina propria, a high-fat diet led to a significant decrease in the proportion and total number of Th17 cells, and a decrease in the expression level of RORγt in Th17 cells.

High-fat and high-sugar foods harm the flora and affect health through the intestinal flora.

Microbiota imbalance induced by dietary sugar disrupts immune-mediated protection from metabolic syndrome. Cell 2022.