Soft drinks can affect communication of gut bacteria and immune system

Medical Xpress / Technion - Israel Institute of Technology / Nature Communications ^ | July 21, 2025 | Noa Gal-Mandelbaum et al

[ConservativeMind]

Consumption of soft drinks, supplemented with white sugar, alters the DNA of gut bacteria and affects the host immune system. The good news? These effects are reversible.

Gut bacteria are important members of the microbial community within our body, i.e., the microbiome. These bacteria, which have co-evolved with humans for generations, are so essential to human health in general and to the development of the immune system in particular that we cannot function without them.

The human gut is constantly influenced by changes in the environment. To keep up, our gut bacteria must adapt quickly. They do this through a process called functional plasticity, which allows them to change their behavior and functions in response to factors like nearby microbes, our health status, and what we eat.

In their current study, the researchers investigated how DNA inversions occur in response to dietary factors. They found that consuming soft drinks, which contain white sugar, can alter the DNA of gut bacteria and, in turn, impact the host's immune system.

The study focused on Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron—a prominent gut member that takes part in preventing gut inflammation, preserving the gut mucus layer, and protecting the host from pathogen invasion. The researchers studied the effects of consuming different dietary components on the DNA inversion profile of these bacteria, in vitro, in mice, and humans.

They discovered that white sugar consumption causes DNA inversions in these bacteria, which led to changes in inflammatory markers of the immune system, including ones in T-cell populations, cytokine secretion, and gut permeability.

The good news is that these effects are reversible; once mice stopped consuming white sugar, the bacterial DNA inversion state reverted, and the immune system's state returned to normal.

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TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: drinks; gitract; gut; gutbacteria

[ConservativeMind]

Sugary drinks increase gut permeability via destruction of helpful gut bacteria pathways, but the effect reverses quickly when such drinking stops.

[ConservativeMind]

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[gitmo]

Interesting.

[logi_cal869]

Translated:

Habitual consumption of sugary soda is analogous to consuming poison.

NOT to be translated as ‘sugar-free’ soda as being safe. /s

[Carry_Okie]

One wonders about alcohol.

[ComputerGuy]

I drink Coke or Aldi cola all day every day.

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[Jim W N]

I drink Coke or Aldi cola all day every day.

They're always trying to take away your joie de vivre.

[for-q-clinton]

It says “white sugar” what does this mean? Corn Syrup doesn’t do this?

If that is the claim, I find this very suspect.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Why don’t these scientists research why everyone with a college diploma ends up being a retarded snowflake.

[higgmeister]

I refuse to consider any intellectual writing that includes the word gut.

bowels:

My guts hurt.

He got a knife in the guts.

Cow's guts are suited for digesting grasses and grains.

I was in the kitchen, pulling the guts out of a chicken.

He has to be careful what he eats because he has some problems with his guts.

[Mr Rogers]

Wait! So this isn’t about soft drinks but SUGAR!

[pepsi_junkie]

I used to think I drank a lot of coke zero (yeah, coke. ignore the username, i was a fool 25 years ago when I signed up) before COVID but during the lockdowns it became hard to get so I started ordering it in bulk from Costco whenever I could. So I ended up with a tower of coke zero pallets in my office and I started drinking them all day, one after another. It became a habit, then an addiction and today I still do drink them constantly. This fall I plan to wean myself. I think it’s affecting me in bad ways, sleep issues probably from massive amounts of caffeine i consume, my throat bugging me likely from the acid, etc. I may try to cultivate a taste for teas, like green tea, but god I don’t like that stuff now.

[dfwgator]

Years ago I switched out soda for sparkling water.

[ComputerGuy]

I love black tea and drink it every morning.
I can’t seem to develop much of a taste for the green stuff.

[tumblindice]

Always look on the bright side of life CM.

[redinIllinois]

.

[minnesota_bound]

So far today I have had glass’s of water and Simply Orange Juice light, Sunkist Orange zero sugar, A&W Root beer and now drinking some Big K Grape juice. No upset tummy.
It must be something else that causes the problems for others.

[82nd Bragger]

I can emphasize with you as a coffee junkie, but I’m also a fan of Coke zero. I used to drink 2 pots of coffee every day, but have cut back to 2 cups. ANYTHING with caffeine is very acidic to your digestive system. Good luck tapering down your caffeine addiction.

[82nd Bragger]

👍. Good soda choices, as I have a 12-pack of Sunkist orange zero and A&W Root Beer zero.