Nutritional Management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. Patients with IBD are at risk of malnutrition and growth failure, largely depending upon their disease burden. Growing evidence suggests that diet plays an important role in modulating the intestinal microbiota, gut mucosal barrier and hence the intestinal immune system. Thus, diet is considered a potentially modifiable risk factor in IBD. Over the last decade this has garnered significant interest in nutritional management of IBD. The following review will discuss different dietary interventions in the treatment of IBD, including enteral nutritional therapies and emerging specific diets. Given every patient's unique genetic makeup and microbiome, the optimal therapeutic approach, including the choice of nutritional therapy, should be personalized.