Diet & nutrition
Crohn’s disease diet: what the evidence says
Diet has the strongest research behind it of any natural approach to Crohn’s. Here’s what the Crohn’s Disease Exclusion Diet, the Mediterranean diet and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet have shown in trials, plus how to eat safely with a stricture.
Diets with trial evidence
Crohn’s Disease Exclusion Diet (CDED)
Clinically studiedCDED · CDED + PEN · Exclusion diet with partial enteral nutrition
A staged whole-food diet that removes foods thought to disturb the gut. In a children’s trial it outperformed the standard liquid-formula diet at 12 weeks.
Mediterranean Diet
Clinically studiedMediterranean-style diet
Matched the stricter Specific Carbohydrate Diet for symptom relief in a 194-person Crohn’s trial, and is far easier to follow long term.
Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)
Clinically studiedSCD · Breaking the Vicious Cycle diet
A grain-free, low-sugar diet with a devoted following in IBD communities. It improved symptoms in a 194-person trial, but no more than a Mediterranean diet.
Low-Residue (Low-Fiber) Diet for Crohn’s
Low-fibre diet · Low-residue diet · Stricture diet
A low-residue food list for Crohn’s flares and strictures: what to eat, what to limit, how psyllium fits in, and the warning signs of a blockage.
Read the evidenceCommon questions
What is the best diet for Crohn’s disease?
No single diet works for everyone, but two have good trial evidence. The Crohn’s Disease Exclusion Diet, combined with a formula drink, brought 75.6% of children into steroid-free remission at week 12 in a randomised trial. In adults, the Mediterranean diet and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet improved symptoms about equally in a 194-patient trial, and the researchers favoured the Mediterranean diet because it is easier to follow.
What foods should I avoid with Crohn’s?
Common triggers include high-fibre and raw foods during flares, fried and fatty foods, very spicy food, caffeine, alcohol, fizzy drinks and, if you are lactose intolerant, regular dairy. Triggers vary from person to person, so a food diary helps.
What should I eat during a Crohn’s flare?
Soft, low-residue foods such as white rice, white pasta, porridge, eggs, fish, chicken, bananas and peeled, well-cooked vegetables, plus plenty of fluids.
Can diet cure Crohn’s disease?
There is no cure for Crohn’s, but diet can be a meaningful part of managing it. Some diets have helped bring on remission in trials, and they work best alongside the care plan you agree with your gastroenterologist.
Phase 2 — in development
Where traditional research stops, our community begins
Natural compounds can’t be patented, so they rarely get the multi-million-dollar trials that drugs receive. That leaves people with Crohn’s without answers to the questions that matter most: what actually helps, at what dose, and for whom? Our Community Symptom Tracker will crowdsource those answers from real people living with Crohn’s, and our upcoming wellness store will make it easy to find quality, third-party-tested products.
- Log your symptoms, supplements and doses in a private daily tracker
- See what’s working for people with the same disease location and medications
- Contribute to the largest real-world dataset on natural Crohn’s support
- Shop curated, third-party-tested protocols from our upcoming store
Be one of the first to join
Early access is opening soon. Bookmark this page and check back — we’ll announce sign-ups here first.