This 5-day diet helped Crohn’s patients feel better fast
Why it matters: This dietary approach could offer a new, non-steroidal treatment option for the roughly one million Americans with Crohn's disease.
- Stanford Medicine researchers conducted a national randomized controlled trial, published in Nature Medicine, demonstrating that a short-term, calorie-restricted eating plan improved symptoms and biological markers in people with mild-to-moderate Crohn's disease.
- The "fasting-mimicking diet" involves five days a month of very low-calorie, plant-based meals, leading to noticeable improvements in symptoms and reductions in key biological markers of inflammation for most participants.
- Sidhartha R. Sinha, MD, assistant professor of gastroenterology and hepatology and senior author, highlights that this study provides physicians with crucial evidence to support dietary recommendations for Crohn's patients, an area previously lacking clear guidance.
A groundbreaking clinical trial by Stanford Medicine reveals that a simple 5-day monthly "fasting-mimicking diet" significantly eases Crohn's disease symptoms and reduces inflammation, offering a much-needed dietary intervention where clear guidance has been lacking. This plant-based, very low-calorie regimen not only improved how patients felt but also measurably lowered biological markers of the disease, providing physicians with evidence-backed dietary recommendations.
