Review article: the association of diet with onset and relapse in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

BACKGROUND: The role of diet in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is migration studies and increasing incidences in line with Westernisation. give a complete overview of studies associating habitual diet with the relapses in ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn's disease (CD). METHODS: A structured search in Pubmed, the Cochrane Library and EMBASE was defined key words, including only full text papers in English language. Forty-one studies were identified, investigating onset (n = 35), or both (n = 1). Several studies reported high intake of sugar or sugar-containing foods (n = 7 UC, n = 12 CD), and low intake of fruits vegetables (n = 5 UC, n = 10 CD) to be associated with an increased However, these findings could not be confirmed by similar or higher other studies. A possible protective role was found for grain-derived CD onset, but results were inconsistent for dietary fibre in UC and CD grain-derived products in UC. No definite conclusions could be drawn for unsaturated fatty acids (UFA), protein and energy intake due to limited inconsistent results. Six studies reported on diet and relapse risk, of only two (n = 1 UC, n = 1 CD) had a prospective follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: current evidence is not sufficient to draw firm conclusions on the role specific food components or nutrients in the aetiology of IBD. prospective studies into the role of habitual diet as a trigger of needed, to identify new therapeutic or preventive targets.