Previous research in Europe and China has shown that sugar-sweetened beverages influence gut microbiome composition. However this is the first study to explore whether these microbial changes affect metabolism and diabetes risk. It is also the first to examine this issue in the US Hispanic/Latino population a group with high diabetes rates and significant sugary drink consumption.

The researchers found that consuming two or more sugary beverages per day was linked to changes in the abundance of nine bacterial species. Four of these species are known to produce short-chain fatty acids which are created when bacteria digest fiber and help improve glucose metabolism. In general bacterial species positively associated with sugary drink intake correlated with poorer metabolic traits. Interestingly these bacteria were not linked to sugar consumed from non-beverage sources.

Additionally they identified associations between sugary beverage consumption and 56 serum metabolites including several produced by gut microbiota or their derivatives. These sugar-associated metabolites were tied to worse metabolic traits such as higher fasting blood glucose and insulin levels increased BMIs and waist-to-hip ratios and lower levels of HDL cholesterol. Importantly individuals with higher levels of these metabolites were more likely to develop diabetes in the 10 years following their initial visit.

We found that several microbiota-related metabolites are associated with the risk of diabetes says Qi. In other words these metabolites may predict future diabetes.

Since gut microbiome samples were collected from only a subset of participants the researchers had an insufficient sample size to determine if any specific gut microbial species were directly linked to diabetes risk. However they plan to investigate this further in future studies.

The team plans to validate their findings in other populations and expand their analysis to explore whether microbial metabolites play a role in other chronic health conditions linked to sugar consumption such as cardiovascular disease.

This research was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities the New York Regional Center for Diabetes Translation Research the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the JLH Foundation.

Source: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250131/Gut-microbiome-may-mediate-the-association-between-sugary-beverages-and-diabetes.aspx