Abstract
The incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is increasing. Despite its exact etiopathogenetic mechanism being presently unknown, both genetic and environmental factors are clearly involved.The microbiome and increased intestinal permeability may be important in the development of IBD.
Changes in diet and industrial food processing may alter the microbiome and damage intestinal mucosal barrier function, leading to a pathological immune response to intestinal antigens. The hypothesis, that diet plays an important role in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD) is supported by findings showing that exclusive enteral nutrition (EEV), with the complete exclusion of a normal diet, leads to healing of the mucosa and remission of the disease.
Efforts to find a diet that could cause changes to the mucosa comparable to those of EEV led to the creation of a special elimination diet, the Crohn's disease exclusion diet (CDED).