The Best Foods to Eat With Inflammatory Bowel Disease: 7 IBD Diets You Can Try

If you have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), you may wonder how your diet affects your symptoms. And you may wonder if there are certain foods you can eat to improve your symptoms. While there’s no specific IBD diet everyone should follow, there are certain foods that may help your symptoms.

Let’s take a closer look at why your diet is important when living with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, and general diet guidelines you can follow.

What is inflammatory bowel disease?

IBD is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The two main types of IBD are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Scientists don’t know exactly what causes IBD, but it seems that genetics, environment, the immune system, and diet all may play a role.

IBD affects how you digest and absorb nutrients from your food. This can lead to a variety of symptoms like:

• Abdominal pain

• Bloating

• Diarrhea

• Constipation

• Nausea

• Changes in appetite 

IBD also puts you at risk for malnutrition, weight loss, and vitamin deficiencies. This is why diet is important in managing your IBD symptoms and staying healthy.

How does diet affect inflammatory bowel disease?

Your diet may play a role in developing IBD and how well you manage it. Experts are still learning about all the ways diet affects IBD. Research has suggested that IBD may develop from an imbalance between your immune system, the cells that line your GI tract, and the trillions of bacterial cells that live within your GI tract (gut microbiome). The gut microbiome can be influenced by many things, including genetics, environmental factors, and diet.

The connection between diet and IBD isn’t fully understood. But, many people living with IBD can identify foods that affect their symptoms. One study found that 60% of people with IBD had certain trigger foods that made their symptoms worse. And about 2 out of 3 people avoided particular foods to prevent a possible disease flare. 

What kind of diet should you follow if you have inflammatory bowel disease?

There’s no single best diet for someone with IBD. Some people may need to try different diets or combine components of different diets before they find what works best for their body. But there are a few common tips that help most people with IBD, no matter what kind of diet you follow:

• Eat several small meals per day.

• Stay hydrated.

• Try to cook meals in advance, and keep your kitchen stocked with foods that don’t cause symptoms for you.

• Keep your cooking simple.

• Keep a food journal to track how certain foods affect your symptoms. 

What foods should you avoid that can trigger IBD?

Trigger foods — foods that may cause or worsen symptoms of IBD — can vary. In general, it seems that diets with high animal fat and low in fruits and vegetables may increase the risk of developing IBD. This may be due to increased inflammation from the saturated fats in animal products.

 Common IBD food triggers include:

• Fruit and vegetable skins

• Whole nuts and whole grains

• Lactose

• Nonabsorbable sugars like sorbitol

• High-fat foods

• High-sugar foods

• Alcohol

• Caffeine

• Spices

If you’re unsure of your trigger foods, you’ll want to take notice of certain foods you have eaten right before you have a flare-up of your IBD. You’ll want to avoid those foods when possible, and especially when having an active flare-up. 

Inflammatory bowel disease: 7 diets to try

There are several diets that people claim can help with IBD, but these recommendations are often based on reported experiences rather than research. Let’s review some of the more popular diets, with their potential advantages and disadvantages. Still, it’s important to know that none of them have strong scientific support.  

1. Specific carbohydrate diet

The specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) is based on the idea that complex sugars may cause more mucus and inflammation in the intestines. If you have frequent flare-ups of ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, it may be a useful diet to follow. To reduce inflammation, this diet recommends avoiding:

• Grains

• Dairy

• Processed meat

• Beans

• Legumes (except lentils and peas)

• Canned fruits and vegetables 

This diet is very restrictive and may be difficult to follow for most people. It also may increase the risk of developing a calcium or vitamin D deficiency because it restricts dairy products.

2. Paleolithic diet (Paleo)

The paleolithic diet is based on the idea that the processed foods of the modern Western diet aren’t a good match for the human gut. This diet promotes eating lean meat from animals not raised on farms, and plant-based foods in specific proportions.

The paleo diet recommends to avoid:

• Most grains used to make foods like bread, pasta, or cereal

• Some starchy vegetables like potato, corn, and yams

• Dairy

• Legumes

• Refined sugars like sugar, artificial sweeteners

This diet may also be difficult to follow long term due to its restrictions. And there’s no current evidence that it’s specifically beneficial for IBD.

3. Low FODMAP diet

The low FODMAP diet stands for low fermentable oligosaccharide, disaccharide, monosaccharide and polyol diet. This diet eliminates high FODMAP foods for 6 to 8 weeks and then reintroduces them slowly. High FODMAP foods contain oligosaccharides, disaccharides, and monosaccharides. When these carbohydrates are digested by the gut, it can cause intestinal symptoms for some people.

High FODMAP foods include:

• Gluten

• Nuts

• Legume

• Dairy

• Certain fruits like apples, pears, and mangoes

• Certain vegetables like onions, broccoli, and cauliflower

This diet is very restrictive and is only meant to be temporary. A small study of people with IBD gives some evidence that this is a helpful diet for people with Crohn’s disease.

4. Anti-inflammatory diet

The anti-inflammatory diet is another popular meal plan. This diet is based on the idea that some carbohydrates can stimulate the growth of bacteria and increase inflammation. This diet recommends the use of probiotics and to avoid:

• Certain carbohydrates like white bread, cereal, and pasta

• High-fat, processed foods

• Red meat 

• Most dairy

• Alcohol

There’s some limited evidence of success with this diet among people with ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease. 

5. Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet can be similar to the specific carbohydrate diet but much easier to follow for most people. This diet encourages eating:

• Fresh fruits

• Vegetables

• Healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids that may help reduce inflammation

• Low-fat dairy

• Eggs

• Yogurt

• Poultry

This diet recommends very little to no red meat, processed foods, or foods with added sugars.

6. Semi-vegetarian diet

A semi-vegetarian diet might be useful to follow for people with Crohn’s disease. In this diet, your meats are limited but not eliminated. This may help to cut down on inflammation-related fats found in meat. This diet includes:

• Fruits

• Vegetables

• Beans

• Legumes

• Nuts

• Eggs

• Dairy

This diet limits animal protein, allowing fish once a week and meat only twice a month. 

7. Low-fiber diet

A low-fiber diet may be recommended temporarily during a flare-up of Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. It may also be useful if you need bowel rest due to complications of IBD like bowel obstruction or bowel surgery. A diet low in fiber helps to reduce foods that may be hard to digest. When following a low-fiber diet for IBD, you would avoid foods like:

• Leafy vegetables

• Whole grains

• Raw fruit

• Nuts

• Seeds

• Popcorn

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Written by:

Kelly Elterman, MD

Kelly Elterman, MD, is a board-certified anesthesiologist by the American Board of Anesthesiologyand has been practicing clinically since she finished her residency training in 2013. Along with her training, she has over 10 years experience in anesthesiology.

Edited by:

Karla Robinson, MD

Karla Robinson, MD, is a medical editor for GoodRx. She is a licensed, board-certified family physician with almost 20 years of experience in health through varied clinical, administrative, and educational roles.

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