Nutrition in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Undernutrition and malnutrition are common in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but overnutrition and obesity have recently increased also and both can lead to complications. Malnutrition and obesity should be screened at time of diagnosis and at least once a year in the course of the disease using validated methods. If screening is positive, a nutritional assessment should be carried out and suitable nutritional therapy should be initiated by a qualified specialist. The first stage of nutritional therapy is diet counseling on compensating for nutritional deficiencies or on weight regulation. If necessary, oral nutrition supplements for malnutrition or formuladiets for obesity can be prescribed. If the therapeutic goals are not achieved by means of oral nutritional therapy, medical nutritional therapy should be considered as a second stage, preferably as enteral nutrition via a tube, if necessary also as parenteral nutrition via a central venous catheter. Medical nutrition therapy for IBD is usually a supportive therapy, but can also be primary therapy, e. g. enteral nutrition in children in the acute episode of Crohn's disease. © 2020 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.