The colonic epithelium requires continuous renewal by crypt resident intestinal stem cells (ISCs) and transit amplifying (TA) cells to maintain barrier integrity, especially after inflammatory damage. An important regulator of ISC and TA cell function is dietary metabolites which can affect their proliferative capacity. Over the last 150 years, the diet of high-income countries contains increasing amounts of simple sugars, such as sucrose, but whether excess sugar affects the function of ISCs and TA cells directly is unknown.