Introduction:
Crohn’s disease is a disease that causes inflammation, or swelling, and irritation of any part of the digestive tract. The most common symptoms of Crohn’s disease are abdominal pain, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, weight loss, and fever. Treatment may include medications, surgery, nutrition supplementation, or a combination of these options. The goals of treatment are to control inflammation, correct nutritional deficiencies, and relieve symptoms.
Dietary change to help prevent relapse of Crohn’s disease:
A small study followed 22 patients in remission from Crohn’s disease. After entering remission, 16 patients followed a semi-vegetarian diet, and 6 patients followed an omnivorous diet. The semi-vegetarian diet included daily portions of brown rice, miso soup made from fermented bean paste, plain yogurt, eggs, vegetables, fruits, legumes, potatoes, algae and other plant foods. Fish was eaten once per week and meat once every two weeks. Remission from symptoms of Crohn’s disease was maintained in about 94% of patients (15 out of 16) on the semi-vegetarian diet but on the omnivorous diet, remission was maintained in only 2 out of 6 patients during a two-year study. (1)
Assessment and Plan:
- Crohn’s disease patients may maintain a longer duration of remission after changing to a semi-vegetarian diet which includes daily portions of brown rice, miso soup made from fermented bean paste, plain yogurt, eggs, vegetables, fruits, legumes, potatoes, algae, other plant foods, fish only once per week, and meat once every two weeks.
References:
1.Chiba M, Abe T, Tsuda H, et al. Lifestyle-related disease in Crohn’s disease: relapse prevention by a semi-vegetarian diet. World J Gastroenterol. 2010 May 28;16(20):2484-95. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20503448