. 2022 Sep 16;71(12):2574–2586. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326575

Table 3.

Potential inflammatory nutrients in elemental diets

	Rationale
Remove or reduce
Milk fat	Experimentally promoting gut inflammation²¹
Fish oil	Experimentally promoting gut inflammation^{36 38}
Soybean oil	Experimentally promoting gut inflammation^{36 38}
High omega-3 or omega-6 PUFA oil	Experimentally promoting gut inflammation^{36 38}
Maltodextrin	Experimentally promoting gut inflammation³²
Enrich
Fibre (eg, inulin and fructooligosacharides)	Experimental and clinical evidence⁸⁷
Plant-based protein	Experimental evidence,⁸⁹ human gut microbiota modulation⁸⁷
Olive oil	Experimental evidence^{153 154}

Elemental diets (formula feed) contain potentially inflammatory nutrients indicated by experimental studies. These studies suggest to restrict or enrich specific food constituents to improve efficacy. Note that an elemental diet should be used in conjunction with counselling by nutritionists and that the efficacy and safety of the proposed regimens require corroboration by controlled nutritional trials in patients with IBD.

IBD, inflammatory bowel disease; PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid.