Eating a lot of added sugar, especially in sodas and sweet drinks, might change the good bacteria in your gut, letting some bacteria that love sugar grow too much while reducing others that help keep your gut healthy—this could lead to leaks in your gut lining and inflammation that’s tied to diseases like diabetes.

Eating too much added sugar can irritate your gut, making it more oxygen-rich, which helps bad bacteria thrive and hurts the good ones—this imbalance might contribute to metabolic problems like obesity or diabetes.

Eating too much added sugar might kill off the good bacteria in your gut that make helpful chemicals, which could weaken your gut lining and cause body-wide inflammation.

Drinking sugary sodas might change your gut bacteria more than eating the same amount of sugar in candy or cookies, because the liquid sugar goes through your stomach faster and reaches your intestines in bigger amounts.

What you eat overall—like veggies, meat, or carbs—is probably what’s really changing your gut bacteria, not the sugar-free sweeteners in your diet.

Eating more plants like vegetables, fruits, and whole grains seems to change the good bacteria in your gut to more helpful types and reduce the harmful ones, which might help your body manage weight and blood sugar better.