Elemental diets are liquid diets designed to place minimal stress on the digestive system. They contain all essential nutrients, but in a pre-digested form, allowing nutrients to be absorbed with little or no digestive effort. In this way, elemental diets can meet nutritional needs while giving the gastrointestinal tract a period of rest.
Research appearing in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (2005; 11(6): 580–588) examined the effect of an elemental diet in 28 patients with Crohn’s disease over four weeks. The researchers evaluated chemical markers of inflammation as well as cellular appearance and compared the results to 30 healthy controls. After four weeks on the elemental diet, inflammatory markers in the Crohn’s patients were reduced to levels comparable to those of the control group. Improvements in cellular structure were also observed, and clinical remission occurred in 20 of the patients. This supports the idea that reducing digestive workload and antigen exposure can play a role in calming intestinal inflammation.
