Diet in IBD: preventive and therapeutic concepts

The potential of dietary interventions as a therapy for IBDs is increasingly appreciated in clinical practice. A central role for Western diets as a rheostat for gut inflammation was demonstrated for IBD in the last years, and particular dietary patterns and food constituents have been linked to the development and course of IBD. Substantial progress in the understanding of nutritional immunology and genetic and epidemiological traits, and the emergence of clinical innovations has sparked a strong interest in dietary intervention, transforming nutritional support into a modifiable treatment option tailored to individuals which may act synergistically to pharmacological therapies. In this study, we review how Western diets act as a fuel for IBD and discuss nutritional concepts, exclusive enteral nutrition and solid food diets, with anti-inflammatory efficacy in IBD. We compare mutual strategies of efficacious solid food diets to deduce a healthy dietary pattern for patients with IBD and suggest incentives regulating our food environment and counselling of doctors and patients to disrupt Western dietary habits and to promote gut health globally.