The anti-Crohn's diet

There have been plenty of anecdotal reports of people who have successfully controlled their Crohn's by following specific diets. The Daily Mail mentions the success of a thousand patient trial in a UK hospital.

(...) At Addenbrooke's Hospital, gastroenterologist Professor John Hunter and his team identify foods that act as a 'trigger' for symptoms, eliminate them from a patient's diet and 'switch off' the disease.

Now 90 per cent of his patients are symptom-free and 56 per cent can resume a normal diet after five years.

During the first phase of treatment, patients consume only specially formulated drinks.

'They contain all the nutrients a patient needs, already broken down into their most simple constituent elements so the body does not have to do any work digesting them,' explains Professor Hunter.

'By taking the gut out of action, we effectively switch off the disease. After two to three weeks, 90 per cent of patients find their symptoms have disappeared.'

They then gradually reintroduce different foods to determine which will cause flare-ups in the individual.

This is the first reasonably large trial of using diet alone to control Crohn's that I've heard of. However, it really needs to be expanded into a much larger scientifically-controlled trial to truly ascertain its effectiveness. Unfortunately, most trials are funded by drug companies, and a diet solution to Crohn's wouldn't offer any profit for them. On the other hand, I'm sure there would be no shortage of volunteers for the trials, and doctors willing to assist.