Anti-inflammatory dietary interventions in inflammatory bowel disease: current insights and future perspectives

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), encompassing Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), arises from multifactorial interactions involving genetics, gut microbiota dysbiosis, immune dysregulation, and environmental triggers, with diet playing a pivotal role. Anti-inflammatory dietary patterns have emerged as adjunctive therapies to pharmacological treatments, potentially inducing and maintaining remission by modulating microbiota and inflammation. This perspective reviews the mechanistic basis for dietary interventions, evaluates key strategies such as the Mediterranean diet (MD), Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), low-FODMAP diet, IBD-Anti-Inflammatory Diet (IBD-AID), and Groningen Anti-Inflammatory Diet (GrAID), and discusses clinical evidence, challenges, and implications. While promising, evidence is constrained by heterogeneous studies and small cohorts. Future research should prioritize large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with multi-omics integration for personalized nutrition in IBD management.