Dietary factors in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease

It is currently held that the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) involves a complex interaction of host responses, some immunologic and genetically determined, and external influences including microbial and dietary factors. Nutritional surveys and studies testing stepwise, exclusion dietary compounds have suggested that dietary factors might be linked to the occurrence of IBD. Food allergy was suggested early as a possible trigger for the inflammatory response; however, no firm evidence has been gathered over the years to substantiate this possibility. The possibility that patients with Crohn's disease may have an unusual premorbid pattern of dietary intake was also been examined since the early seventies. Several groups of investigators report a high intake of refined sugars (i.e. sucrose), recycled cooking oil, a more frequent consumption of fast foods in patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis respectively, However, a critical comparison of incidence and prevalence studies published from 1976 until 1994 clearly showed no pre-existing nutritional abnormality that has been identified consistently in patients who develop inflammatory bowel disease.