Table 2.

Proposed common ground for dietary therapy in CD and UC

	Rationale	Recommendation
Disallow
Artificial sweetener (sacchrine, splenda)	Experimentally promoting gut inflammation,92 94 altering human gut microbiota,93 restriction in nutritional trials39–41	Stop ultra-processed, ready-made or canned food, sweets, soft drinks
Emulsifiers (P80, CMC)	Experimentally promoting gut inflammation,31 altering human gut microbiota,96 restriction in nutritional trials39–41	Stop ultra-processed, ready-made or canned food, sweets, soft drinks
Food colourants (Red 40/E129, Yellow 6/E110)	Experimentally promoting gut inflammation,30 restriction in nutritional trials39–41	Stop ultra-processed, ready-made or canned food, sweets, soft drinks
Ultra-processed food	Experimentally promoting gut inflammation (see additives above), restriction in nutritional trials39–41	Stop ultra-processed, ready-made or canned food, sweets, soft drinks
Restrict
Saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids	Experimentally promoting gut inflammation,36 38 arguably restriction in nutritional trials39–41	Restrict animal fat (regardless of source), deep fried and ultra-processed food
Sucrose, Glucose, Fructose	Experimentally promoting gut inflammation,23–27 arguably restriction in nutritional trials39–41	Restrict soft drinks, sweets, ready- made food
Enrich
Plant-based food items (fibre source)	Enrichment in nutritional trials39–41	Encourage plant-based diet

Dietary counselling recommendation based on experimental evidence and nutritional trials. Note that the efficacy and safety of the proposed dietary alterations requires corroboration by controlled nutritional trials in patients with IBD.

CD, Crohn’s disease; IBD, inflammatory bowel disease; UC, ulcerative colitis.