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If a therapeutic diet is not right for you, you are not alone. The lifestyle changes required are difficult, especially so for those who travel a lot, students who live in a dorm, people with a busy work schedule, those on a tight budget, those who do not like to cook, those without family support, and those for whom food plays a significant role in their social life, among others. Quality of life is the most important factor when measuring the benefit of any given therapy, and if your chosen therapy reduces your qualify of life rather than improves it (even if your condition gets better), then it is probably not the right therapy for you.

While higher tiers of dietary intervention may provide greater reduction in symptoms and inflammation, more liberalized dietary options, including the Mediterranean Diet and small steps of change for healthy eating (Healthy Eating Steps), can be beneficial as adjunctive therapy alongside meds and may lead to improvement in inflammation, symptoms, and overall health. For many, these approaches may provide the best balance of healthy dietary change and therapeutic benefit while not requiring significant lifestyle sacrifices. While therapeutic diets may have the greatest potential for reducing inflammation, they are only appropriate for those most motivated to adopt them. Healthy Eating Options for IBD provide benefit to a broader range of patients without impacting lifestyle significantly. If you want to add nutritional therapy to your medical management plan without making the sacrifices involved with a therapeutic diet, adopting a Healthy Eating approach may be the right path for you.

Scientific evidence supporting the Mediterranean Diet can be found at the NT for IBD website: Mediterranean Diet.