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This month's newsletter is packed with latest science, announcements, and events, plus IBD-friendly recipes for Thanksgiving! 

• Ways to ease your fears around eating with loved ones this holiday season
• Donate to our IBD Nutrition Care without Barriers Fundraising Campaign
• AIBD’s Empowering Excellence in IBD Care conference
• Partnership with Canadian Children's Inflammatory Bowel Disease Network
• Canadian Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness month: Young and Brave with IBD
• Nutrition highlights from Food: the Main Course to Digestive Health 2025
• IBD-friendly Thanksgiving Recipes from our recipe database

Navigating Social Settings During the Holidays

As we enter the holiday season, the invitations to all the family gatherings or holiday parties may be daunting to someone with IBD. The unpredictable symptoms of Crohn’s and Colitis can make navigating these social situations uncomfortable. With some advanced planning and practical tips, you can ease your fears and look forward to gatherings with your loved ones this season.

Last year, Nutritional Therapy for IBD partnered with the South Asian IBD Alliance (SAIA) for a special patient education program titled “Eating During the Holidays with IBD: A Cultural Focus." This enlightening conversation offers helpful advice from both clinicians and pateint advocates on ways to navigate food on special occasions.

Donate Today to our IBD Nutrition Care Without Barriers Fundraising Campaign!

Nutrition is a crucial part of living well with IBD, yet it's often overlooked. We're working with patients, doctors, dietitians, and researchers to change that and make nutrition care globally accessible. From September through December, the IBD Nutrition Care Without Barriers campaign aims to increase awareness and help break down those barriers.

By donating to our campaign, you help to:



• Provide trusted, life-changing tools and resources for patients and healthcare professionals, including education, guidance, and support materials
• Contribute to live programs and community events that offer connection and empowerment for patients with IBD
• Expand our dietitian-vetted, IBD-friendly recipe database
• Advance nutrition research to uncover better treatments and turn scientific discoveries into practical, easy-to-understand information that improve health outcomes

Your generous gift helps people with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis to feel better, eat with no fear, and never face IBD alone. Please consider making a donation today and learn how your gift is helping change lives!

AIBD's Empowering Excellence in IBD Care Conference

Canadian Children's Inflammatory Bowel Disease Network Partnership

Canadian Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Month

Our new partnership with CIDsCaNN is timely since November is Canadian Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Month. This month's theme is Young and Brave with IBD. Canada has one of the highest rates of pediatric IBD in the world. This month’s focus is on the unique challenges and incredible courage of children and youths who are living with IBD. Visit the site for more information on resources for parents, kids, and teens with IBD and the teachers who work with them.

Learn takeaways on the role of diet and nutrition for managing common gastrointestinal conditions that can overlap with IBD: 

✅ The management of IBS is evolving from treating symptoms 👉 understanding causes and choosing the right treatment

👉 Common mimickers of IBS with diarrhea arise in the gut mucosa (e.g., IBD) or the intestinal lumen (e.g., bile acid malabsorption)

👉 Pelvic floor dysfunction affects 40% of people with chronic constipation 

👉 Individuals with mast cell activation syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, and hypermobility spectrum disorders 👉 ⬆ digestive and psychological burden

✅ Diets for managing IBS: 

🟢 Well-studied diets: fiber-modified diet, traditional dietary advice/NICE guidelines, and the low FODMAP diet/’gentle’ FODMAP diet

🟠 Less-studied diets: Mediterranean diet, low nickel diet, low histamine diet, and restrictive diets based on IBS-specific IgG testing 

✅ Dietary advice for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome involves ⬆ sodium (3-10 g of salt/day) & fluid (2-3 liters per day) intake, and modify meal consistency and frequency

✅ Indigestion and a slow-empting stomach may coexist in the same person

👉 Dietary strategies should be tailored based on: patient history, symptom patterns, and tolerance

👉 Symptoms can be exacerbated by certain foods (e.g., fat-rich foods) ➕self-perceived food sensitivities

✅ Diet and nutrition tips and tricks in ostomies and short bowel syndrome:

👉 Anticipating complications is central

👉 Nutrition care matters before and after surgery

👉 The patient’s remaining GI anatomy will help choose the right diet

Research Highlights

First evidence-based dietary guidelines for chronic constipation now available.

The new guidelines focus on key foods, diets, and supplements that work and don’t work for constipation:

❌ There is insufficient evidence to confirm the effectiveness of a high-fiber diet

✅ Better try some foods (e.g., 2-3 kiwi fruits a day) or supplements (e.g., magnesium oxide) 

💡 The guidelines include a clinician-friendly tool that quickly helps identify key foods, diets, and supplements that can support key symptoms 

Some prebiotics show potential for ulcerative colitis

✅ 1-kestose (a type of fructooligosaccharide) at 10 g/d or oligofructose-enriched inulin at 12-15 g/d might have a benefit for the induction of clinical remission in UC

✅ Germinated barley foodstuff at 20 g/d or Plantago ovata seeds (psyllium/ispaghula) at 20 g/d might be helpful for maintenance of remission in UC

❌ No difference between prebiotics and controls for the induction and maintenance of CD.

We are grateful for the collaboration and support of our Corporate Partners!

*Please note that Nutritional Therapy for IBD does not provide medical advice. The content provided here is for informational purposes only. Patients should always talk with their healthcare providers before changing their diet.*