RESUMEN
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic and incurable conditions of the gastro-intestinal tract with an increasing incidence and prevalence worldwide. Common symptoms are abdominal pain, diarrhea, and weight loss. Despite recent advances in medical management, many patients fail to achieve clinical remission and healing of the mucosa of the bowel. The cause is thought to involve an inappropriate reaction of the immune system, the microbiome and the environment in genetically susceptible individuals, leading to chronic bowel inflammation. Evidence is emerging that diet is a key environmental factor that might influence disease onset and course, and therefore may become a therapeutic strategy to mitigate inflammation and symptoms. Since IBD is a heterogeneous disease on a clinical and a molecular level, personalizing dietary advice could be the crucial factor to achieve long-lasting changes in dietary behaviors that could not only improve nutritional status but also tackle gut inflammation and abdominal symptoms on an individual level. In this review, we first discuss different aspects of personalized nutrition, namely the level, focus, and scope of personalized dietary regimens. Then, we provide a framework for the different goals of nutritional therapy in IBD and current evidence for personalized dietary approaches. Lastly, we discuss the need for adequate trial designs, access to the right data types and the bioinformatic tools that are necessary to develop algorithms that will allow us to move from general "healthy eating" advice to truly personalized nutritional plans for the individual IBD patient.
RESUMEN
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, and the exact pathogenesis is still unclear. It is believed that IBD develops in response to a complex interaction between the microbiota, environmental factors, and the immune system, in genetically predisposed individuals. Identifying these environmental factors will offer more insight in the development of the disease, and reveal new therapeutic targets for IBD patients. One of the environmental factors that has gained more interest over the last years is our diet. The prevalence of IBD has increased significantly and this increase is thought to be associated with a 'Western diet', characterized by high intake of fats, added sugar, meat, and ultra-processed foods (UPFs). The UPFs now account for almost 50% of the energy intake in Westernized countries and are therefore an important characteristic of this Western diet. UPFs are characterized by higher amounts of salt, fat, sugar and the presence of different food additives. Epidemiological studies have found associations between UPF intake and a range of non-communicable diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Preclinical and clinical evidence suggest that non-nutritive ingredients and additives, present in UPFs, can negatively affect different components of the intestinal barrier, such as the microbiota, the mucus layer, the epithelium, and the immune cells in the lamina propria. Disruption of this barrier can cause the immune system to encounter an increased bacterial exposure, leading to an aberrant immune response. In this article, the available evidence on the possible role of UPFs and their components in the increasing incidence and prevalence of IBD is reviewed. These findings can be translated to the clinic and may be helpful to consider when giving dietary advice to IBD patients. A better understanding of the role of UPFs may lead to less restrictive diets for patients with IBD, hence increasing the dietary compliance and efficacy of exclusion diets.