I would love to blame highly processed foods for a recent spike but those are not new. They are surely a factor and have been since at least the 1970's but there are newer factors that nobody will appreciate me linking. [1][2]

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayfRq-CPF6I [video][18 mins]

[2] - https://biomarkerres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s403...

The bro science I've heard around this is that emulsifiers and fake sugars aren't easily digested, and therefore sit around in the GI tract as fuel for pathogens.

My mind was kinda blown recently when I couldn't find a single ice cream brand that didn't have some form of nasty thickener. It's insidious.