Sugar and Antibiotics: Study Reveals Hidden Danger
A recent study revealed that consuming sugar-rich foods and beverages during antibiotic treatment can cause significant disruption to the gut microbiome—the microorganisms that naturally reside in the intestines—and promote the growth of bacterial species that can cause serious infections.
The study, published in the scientific journal Nature, found that combining antibiotics with sugars, particularly added sugars, can reduce the diversity of gut bacteria, which play crucial roles in digestion, immunity, and the production of certain vitamins.
Researchers relied on data from more than 1,000 stool samples collected from 173 cancer patients who consumed over 9,400 hospital-prepared meals during a period of intensive antibiotic therapy and prior to stem cell transplantation.
The hospital-imposed diet allowed researchers to accurately determine the types and quantities of food patients consumed, rather than relying on patients’ estimates of their intake.
The researchers found that each increase of approximately 100 grams in the consumption of foods, sweets, and sweetened beverages during antibiotic treatment was associated with a 24 percent decline in microbiome diversity.
This decrease in bacterial diversity coincided with an increase in the population of Enterococcus faecium, a bacterium that normally resides in the gut without causing harm. However, an imbalance among bacterial species can allow it to overgrow.
In some cases, these bacteria can cross the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream, potentially leading to sepsis. They can also exacerbate certain complications of stem cell transplantation, such as graft-versus-host disease, in which donor stem cells attack the recipient’s body tissues.
To confirm the findings, researchers conducted experiments on mice. Administering a broad-spectrum antibiotic led to a limited increase in Enterococcus numbers, but when sugar was added to the diet after antibiotic treatment, the population of these bacteria rose 16-fold by the third day and 33-fold by the sixth day.
The study also indicated that patients who consumed above-average amounts of sugar were about 12 percent more likely to die after stem cell transplantation compared to those who consumed lower amounts of sugar.
Researchers emphasized that these results do not prove a direct causal relationship between sugar consumption and death, noting that the study did not directly test whether reducing sugar intake leads to improved patient outcomes.
Lead researcher Jonathan Beld said the findings suggest that limiting the consumption of sugar-rich foods and beverages may be beneficial, specifically during antibiotic treatment, but not necessarily at all times.
