Have you ever noticed the way you pass urine when you go to the bathroom at periods of time where you have been eating a lot of junk food? Have you ever noticed that you have been urinating with more difficulty at these periods of time in comparison to the times where you have been eating relatively more healthily?
Even if you didn’t, try paying attention to yourself when you go to the bathroom the next time you go on a junk food-eating spree. Or the opposite, try paying attention when you go to the bathroom at periods of time where you have been eating healthily, you will notice that your urinary health has improved.
Your urinary system can be negatively impacted by eating junk food in a lot of different kinds of ways. Some of these ways can be considered as fast and direct in the way they do harm to your urinary system and some of them can be considered as slow and indirect, while others are somewhere in between.
Junk food is full of carbohydrates, sugars and fats, and it has very little and insignificant amounts of vitamins and minerals.
Your immune system and body need vitamins, minerals and other kinds of healthy nutrients to stay healthy and strong in the face of germs and pathogens, such as the UTI-causing E. coli bacteria and others.
You are not going to be provided with any of these nutrients when you eat junk food.
Inside our brains we have something called pleasure centers, and the high amount of carbohydrates and sugars found in junk food can tamper with these pleasure centers, causing us to become addicted to this unhealthy food.
Just as you may have noticed, sometimes we eat junk food just because it gives us pleasure and satisfaction, and not because we’re hungry.
That is one of the greatest harms of this kind of food on the body.
I do not need to mention that junk food includes every kind of food that is high in calories and fats and low in fiber, vitamins, and proteins, so it includes soft drinks, sweets, many bakery goods and of course salty snacks like pizza and hamburgers.
Does junk food cause UTI?
Our urinary system is not separate from the rest of our body.
So, if you have a weak immune system, an unhealthy cardiovascular system or you struggle with weight management issues or even diabetes due to eating a lot of junk food, then you should expect to have issues in your urinary system too, like the UTI.
These metabolic issues can definitely have a negative impact on the urinary system, in general.
Studies show that people with type 2 diabetes and obese people are at a much higher risk of acquiring infections like urinary tract infections (UTIs) than people who do not have obesity or diabetes, and we all know that eating junk food is a major cause for developing obesity and diabetes.
People with insulin resistance issues also find a much harder time getting rid of infections like UTIs than normal, and the course to full recovery would be a much longer and more difficult one.
So, of course, if you eat junk food, especially if you do that on regular basis, you could be setting yourself up for failure to prevent or treat UTI, especially not in a complete and proper way.
Our immune system’s function will be greatly affected if we eat junk food whether in the long term or even in the short term.
The carbohydrate and sugar content, hence the calorie content, of this food can trigger the immune system in an unhealthy way every time people consume it.
High sugar and fat diets are not only extremely unhealthy in the long run, but they can also have some fast-acting negative health consequences that can affect the kidneys and the bladder in a way that would make them more susceptible to infections like UTI.
This study points out that the high sugar and carbohydrate content of junk food can contribute to increasing the levels of proinflammatory mediators which are the part of the immune system that causes inflammation and participates in diabetes and weakening the overall state of immunity.
It’s absolutely necessary for the immune system cells that defend our urinary system against UTIs, like the Macrophages, T cells, neutrophils and so on, to feed on glucose molecules for energy, however, excessive amounts of it in diet can lead to contrary results.
The immune system is responsible for the body’s response against infections, so when a UTI occurs, immunity cells, like the macrophages and neutrophils, will gather around the bacteria inside the bladder, for example, with their secretions and signaling mediators and so on and try to eliminate the infection.
However, all these immune cells with the toxins they secrete at the bacteria trying to kill it, with all the other compounds involved in the immune response and with the bacteria they are trying to kill form what’s called an immunity complex or an inflammation, and that complex/inflammation can inflict damage on the host cells and in this case the bladder muscle inner walls or lining.
This immunity complex/inflammation which can literally be described as a battlefield between our immunity and the UTI-causing bacteria can have its toll on the urinary tract as we said.
Unless immunity or treatment gets rid of the UTI quickly and swiftly, the person who has the infection is still going to suffer from cystitis or UTI symptoms and the damage that can be caused to their urinary system, because of that, can sometimes be hard to come back from.
We will explain those UTI symptoms in the next section.
The healthier the immune system is the less inflammation it would produce in reaction to infections, such as the UTI, and the swifter it would be able to remove foreign bacteria from the body, like E. coli bacteria.
High sugar intake from junk food can offset the immunity system and result in it causing more harm than good by way of increasing the production of those harmful pro-inflammatory mediators and cytokines.
These compounds will cause the immunity cells with their secretions to only accumulate around the site of infection in the urinary tract without eliminating the bacteria and inflict harm on the urinary bladder walls as they do so.
That is to say, the immune system gets activated every time people consume high amounts of sugar, and the intake of high-calorie meals is going to cause the Macrophage cells of our immune system to release more pro-inflammatory mediators.
Meaning that the immune system will produce more of these compounds that will contribute to furthering the inflammatory state of the body.
Consuming junk food on regular bases can put the body constantly in a stressful state, and it will exhaust the immune system, in the long run, causing it to fight against infections, like UTI, less effectively and optimally. See this research.
So, the result would be that junk food would cause the immune system to overreact to any newly introduced infection making an excessively heightened inflammatory response at the expense of effective removal of the causative agents.
The final word on this matter.
An exhausted immune system due to the chronic consumption of junk food is much more prone to bacterial infections like UTIs that constantly try to invade our urinary tract.
So, if our first line of defense is not up to the task, it will not only be unable to eliminate the infection, but it will also harm the bladder and potentially the kidneys through its inflammatory response.
It will also be more difficult for a person who has a malfunctioning immune system to be cured of urinary tract infections completely and without any kind of reversible or irreversible damage to the urinary tract.
This incomplete removal of the causative pathogens could be the basis for the occurrence of recurrent urinary tract infections in a person who eats junk food a lot.
So, we can say with certainty that junk food does cause UTI in so many different mechanisms and pathways that we cannot even count.
Can junk food cause UTI symptoms?
In the case of a urinary tract infection (UTI) with a person who has been accustomed to eating junk food throughout their life, their immune system would be more prone to causing inflammation in response to the infection than to actually being efficient at getting rid of the disease and of the bacteria that has caused it.
This inflammatory response can actually be harmful to the urinary bladder especially if it persists, and it can be responsible for most of the UTI symptoms that patients experience whenever they have a UTI.
These symptoms would include urinary frequency, hesitancy, urgency, lower abdominal pain that may radiate to the upper back, burning sensation with urination and sometimes fever and chills.
A person who has a healthy immune system would encounter UTIs less frequently and would find an easier time getting rid of them than a person who eats a lot of junk food and has unhealthy immunity.
For the latter, symptoms of UTI would persist more causing damage to the inner walls of their urinary bladder that could be irreversible sometimes.
This reversible or irreversible harm can contribute to that person suffering from recurrent UTI episodes in the future.
So, the short answer is of course junk food can cause inflammatory and UTI symptoms in so many ways beyond counting.
Different ways in which junk food can cause UTI?
We talked about how junk food can disrupt the immune system and be a factor in causing or the development of UTI, however, there are multiple other ways in which junk food can also be involved in the development of UTI.
One of these ways is that high-sugar meals can cause a direct rise in serum uric acid levels and that is a major risk factor for the development of kidney disease and kidney stones. See this study.
Both of these diseases are heavily associated with urinary tract infections, and in fact, sometimes kidney stones and urinary tract infections can be inseparable from one another. See the article we made about this subject.
Another way in which junk food can be associated with UTI is through dehydration.
Dehydration is a major UTI and kidney stone risk factor, and it can also be one of the main hidden reasons why some people get recurrent or chronic urinary tract infections.
Nothing can dehydrate the body more than a meal rich in salt, fat, carbohydrates and sugars, and to be honest, one hamburger sandwich or pizza contains all of these.
So, be careful from the threat of dehydration that comes from eating these kinds of food, especially when you have a UTI.
Junk food is also very low on necessary vitamins, minerals and fibers which are the basis of any healthy and stable diet and also the basis for a healthy and functioning body and immune system.
So, if your diet does not contain a sufficient amount of vital vitamins, minerals, fibers and even polyphenolic compounds, then it would not be a surprise to contract infections like UTI.
This study also shows that junk food had the same negative impact as diabetes on the kidneys.
So, even non-diabetic people who eat junk are damaging their kidneys in a similar way to those who have uncontrolled diabetes, the study suggests.
A healthy gut definitely means a healthy urinary tract and junk food definitely does not keep our intestine or gut microbiota in a healthy shape, and that can definitely reflect on the integrity of our urinary tract. No need to show you any kind of research on this.
Last but not least, kidney.org suggests that junk food contains excessive amounts of phosphorus and sodium salts, and these high amounts can damage the kidneys even in healthy people who do not have any kind of kidney disease.
Can eating junk food trigger UTI?
As this study shows, junk food puts the body in a chronic state of second-grade or low-grade inflammation.
This does not only have implications on the heart, and the liver and on obesity, heart disease and diabetes, but it can also affect the kidneys and the urinary tract in general.
A body that’s been constantly under an inflammatory state can overreact to any external stimuli, and that overreaction in itself can trigger a chain of events that would lead to a UTI.
So, for example, a small number of bacteria has reached the urethra of a young woman who eats junk food on regular basis.
This young lady is in a threat of becoming diabetic and obese if she continues on her eating habits.
How do you think her worn-out immune system would respond to that external threat?
my guess is that it would defend the urinary tract very poorly opening the way for the bacteria to ascend from the urethra to the bladder causing a full and official UTI.
Even if it does defend the urinary tract against the invading bacteria, it would do a very poor job at it, causing inflammations and unnecessary disruptions and disturbances to the bladder muscles.
That would end up in that lady having signs and symptoms of cystitis or interstitial cystitis, for that matter, for a long period of time.
Note: interstitial cystitis is the same as UTI or cystitis in terms of symptoms but without an actual bacterial, fungal or viral infection.
These symptoms may not go very easily, and they could cause damage to the urinary tract that would lay the groundwork for future episodes of UTI.
Now imagine another scenario where your immune system is fighting a number of E. coli bacteria that have reached the bladder because of a kidney stone or from the urethra or it was just opportunistic bacteria that was waiting for an opportunity to turn harmful.
Now imagine that at the same time you eat a hamburger sandwich and drink a can of Cola. What do you think will happen?
There will be a strong chance that you will get slightly dehydrated and the risk of inflammation or second-grade inflammation will increase because of all that sugar you ingested.
All of this can create an opening for the bacteria to defeat your immune system and take over the bladder.
The risk of inflammation within the bladder and inflammatory bladder symptoms can also go up by a great margin.
So, although there have been not a lot of studies about this subject, one can safely assume that there are a lot of situations and scenarios in which junk food can indeed trigger UTI.
How much junk food is too much for people with UTI?
It depends on whether the person has an ongoing UTI or are they in fear of having one in the future or do they feel that they are at the brink of having it.
In all cases, junk food is the least favorable or healthy choice.
It is not advisable to eat junk food at the time of having a UTI episode at all because as we said it can bring you closer to dehydration and it can compromise your immune system immediately.
For people who want to prevent infections like UTI from happening in the first place or for people who suffer from chronic or recurrent UTIs, it’s absolutely not advisable to have a lifestyle of eating junk food.
These people should reduce their intake of this kind of food to a minimum level.
And, that minimum threshold could be different from person to person and it also depends on how much they are addicted to that food. For me, it’s once a week, but I think I should reduce that quantity even more.
So the general wisdom that you can take from this is to eat as less junk food as you can and as much healthy vitamin and flavonoid-rich food as you can possibly ingest.
Can bacteria travel through junk food to the bladder?
The main route for the pathogenic E. coli bacteria to cause a urinary tract or gastrointestinal infection is through contaminated food.
E. coli-contaminated food delivers the bacteria to the large intestines where they can reside, and from there they can travel to the bladder or the urinary tract of the infected person.
But it is not limited to junk food as any kind of food that is contaminated with the bacteria can introduce it to our gut environment.
However, most UTIs come from opportunistic E. colis turning against the body when the immunity drops or because of other gut microbiome circumstances.
Just make sure you wash your fruits and veggies properly and do not eat undercooked meat, especially if you are the kind of person who suffers a lot from intestinal or urinary tract illnesses.
Is it also bad for UTI to eat junk food occasionally or sparingly?
If you eat junk food once or twice a month and in small amounts, then generally that is not so bad, but don’t eat it while you have UTI or at a time when you feel you might have one soon.
We have now reached the end of our article, so If you need any more help with your UTI, feel free to contact us or check the multitude of articles we have about this subject on our website KNOW & TREAT UTI.
Stay healthy and have a wonderful rest of your day.