Sugar’s effect on illness varies depending on the type of illness. According to a study published in the journal Cell, researchers found that feeding sugar to mice with a bacterial infection was lethal, while feeding sugar to mice with a viral infection increased their chances of survival. This suggests that sugar can have opposite effects on different types of inflammation caused by various infections. However, it’s important to note that the mechanism is not about starving or feeding the infectious agents themselves but rather about modulating the body’s inflammatory response.
In bacterial infections, the presence of glucose seems to exacerbate the inflammatory process, leading to damage in the body, such as in the brain, causing convulsions and death in the study’s mice. In contrast, in viral infections, glucose appears to be beneficial for survival.
Therefore, while sugar can feed certain types of illness, it can also be beneficial in others. The impact of sugar on illness is complex and depends on the nature of the infection.
