Diet and IBD: New approaches

Some people develop Inflammatory Bowel Disease (or IBD). IBD causes loose poos, belly pain and tiredness. A number of things cause IBD. The types of foods that people eat is one. Others are the bugs that everyone has inside their gut, the world that we live in and how the surface of the gut works. Some foods do increase the chance of IBD: these are foods that have lots of fat or lots of sugar, and some different chemicals that can be used to store food longer.

Other foods like fruits and vegetables help to stop people getting IBD. In addition, children and grown-ups that get IBD can often have less interest in eating and can lose weight. Children with IBD tend to grow more slowly than they should and some don’t go through all the expected steps as teenagers. Also, many people with IBD can have low levels of some of the goodies that come from food, such iron or vitamins. Given the way that our gut bugs change depending on what we eat and the importance of these things to IBD, and also that IBD often interferes with appetite and weight, it is not surprising that diet also plays a big part in treating people with IBD (trying to get them feeling better).

This is especially so in children. At present the best ways to manage IBD with diet and foods are not known. The best types of foods for people with IBD are not known either. There are many parts of this that we worry about, so now we really need to get some answers. These research studies focus on some special aspects of diet for people with IBD, with the goal to find better answers to the questions that are commonly asked. These studies are broken down in smaller parts: each adds together to the overall goal to improve the nutrition of people with IBD. The first part of these studies is to learn more about what people with IBD across NZ eat and why. The second part is to see if teaching children with IBD, and their parents, about the best foods to eat can improve their nutrition.

The third part is to see if a special tablet containing lots of extra nutrients (more than we can get from food) is okay for children with IBD to take, and if it helps their nutrition. The fourth steps will be to see what fibre children with IBD and their siblings eat. The fifth step will be to see if children with IBD can take a special fibre supplement and to see if this helps with their IBD. The sixth will show what happens when children with controlled IBD use a special diet. The seventh part will develop ways to be able to check and fix low levels of one particular vitamin, vitamin D. Alongside these parts, other work will look at how these treatments affect the bugs in the gut and inflammation in the gut, and also to use special ways to look at how nutrients work using specific lab experiments.