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Review
. 2021 Mar 3;13(3):832.
doi: 10.3390/nu13030832.

Let Food Be Thy Medicine-Its Role in Crohn's Disease

Judith Wellens  1 , Séverine Vermeire  1 , João Sabino  1
Affiliations
Review

Let Food Be Thy Medicine-Its Role in Crohn's Disease

Judith Wellens et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

The food we eat is thought to play a role in both the increasing incidence as well as the course of Crohn's disease. What to eat and what to avoid is an increasingly important question for both patients and physicians. Restrictive diets are widely adopted by patients and carry the risk of inducing or worsening malnutrition, without any guarantees on anti-inflammatory potential. Nevertheless, exploration of novel therapies to improve long-term management of the disease is desperately needed and the widespread use of exclusive enteral nutrition in the induction of paediatric Crohn's disease makes us wonder if a similar approach would be beneficial in adult patients. This narrative review discusses the current clinical evidence on whole food diets in achieving symptomatic and inflammatory control in Crohn's disease and identifies knowledge gaps with areas for future research.

Keywords: Crohn’s disease; diet; inflammatory bowel diseases; nutrition; nutritional therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

J.W. declares no conflict of interest. S.V. has received grants from AbbVie, J&J, Pfizer, and Takeda; and has received consulting and/or speaking fees from AbbVie, Arena Pharmaceuticals, Avaxia, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Dr Falk Pharma, Ferring, Galapagos, Genentech-Roche, Gilead, Hospira, Janssen, Mundipharma, MSD, Pfizer, Prodigest, Progenity, Prometheus, Robarts Clinical Trials, Second Genome, Shire, Takeda, Theravance, and Tillots Pharma AG. J.S. has received speaker’s fees from Takeda and AbbVie and consultancy fees from Janssen.

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