The European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO), the world’s leading authority in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, has published its first Consensus Guidelines on the dietary management of IBD, providing evidence-based practical recommendations on how diet should be used to support people living with IBD.

Monash University’s Associate Professor Emma Halmos helped lead development of the guidelines, whose main message is that all people with IBD should have access to a dietitian with experience in IBD. Some other messages include:

• If no specific dietary intervention is indicated, IBD patients should follow healthy eating guidelines.
• The diets recommended to induce remission in Crohn’s disease include exclusive enteral nutrition and the Crohn’s disease exclusion diet with partial enteral nutrition.
• The Mediterranean diet and limited intake of red meat can be considered to maintain remission in ulcerative colitis.
• A low FODMAP diet is recommended to treat irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)-like symptoms in people with IBD in remission and ongoing gut symptoms.
• At least 10 days of pre-surgical nutritional care is recommended before surgery, using certain nutritionally-complete drinks, to reduce risk of complications.
• A healthy eating pattern is associated with a reduced risk of developing IBD.

“These international consensus guidelines recommend that all people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have access to a dietitian. This will drive the use of dietitians in IBD clinics so that evidence-based dietary therapy can be properly delivered to help people living with IBD,” said Associate Professor Emma Halmos, from Monash University’s School of Translational Medicine, Department of Gastroenterology.

“These consensus guidelines will help to standardise care delivered to people living with IBD, so that diet is appropriately used and will improve their health and wellbeing. For Australians with IBD, this will lead to improved access to specific and specialised dietary care that is based on science and avoids unnecessary restriction.”