Five reasons why a 'no sugar diet' is causing you harm and what you should do
A study revealed the startling claim that cutting sugar out completely may not be so good for your health, and all the reasons why it might not be great to go cold-turkey.
Love sugar? According to the Endocrine Society, you can keep your diet with a spoonful or two after it was found that it could disrupt your internal function and metabolic health.
At ENDO 2026, an annual meeting the Society plan in Chicago, US, Researchers from the Dasman Diabetes Institute in Kuwait tested a theory on mice, by feeding them a low-fat diet without sucrose, a form of sugar.
What they found was that over a course of 16 weeks, the little animals ended up with health problems previously not seen in the control group prior to the test.
Advert
This led scientists to believe this same diet could translate to humans if they too remove sugar from their day-to-day lives.
According to the researchers, there wasn’t a lot known about these types of restrictive diets and the impact they can have on the body.
But now, it can be seen that the mice developed a plethora of things, such as five key problems: poorer glucose control, insulin resistance, an imbalanced gut microbe, intestinal inflammation, and then also changes that are associated with fatty liver disease.
On the flip side, when you stop eating sugar, you can apparently expect a few perks before the above issues might begin.
Dr Eric Berg took to TikTok to share that there are those who feel better after cutting out the sweets.
“You’re going to notice that throughout your body, there’s going to be a lot less inflammation and pain,” he said. “You’re going to notice that your skin is just a lot better. It will have that healthy glow.”
But while this sounds good, and there’s even a simulation to prove it, researchers revealed that stopping sugar can have a negative impact on your gut.
However, they suggest you can always cut down without completely removing it, if you want to feel some of the benefits of being on a low-sugar diet.
"Completely removing sucrose from a low-fat diet may unexpectedly disrupt gut health and promote inflammation and metabolic dysfunction, highlighting that balanced nutrition is more important than simply eliminating sugar," said Rasheed Ahmad, head of the Immunology & Microbiology Department at the Dasman Diabetes Institute.
Among balancing your diet, he went on to say that the study shows that the gut is a significant factor in the results, which shows how important it is to focus on when considering restrictive diets.
"This research may influence future dietary recommendations by emphasizing the importance of maintaining a healthy gut microbiome rather than focusing only on sugar restriction," Ahmad explained. "In the long term, these findings could help improve strategies for preventing and managing metabolic disorders, fatty liver disease and chronic inflammatory conditions."
Topics: Science, Food And Drink, Health
Britt Jones